Maker of quality St. Clair Flats style decoys

LITTLE IS KNOWNabout Zeke Mc-Donald. He was an early St. ClairFlats duck hunter who lived on afarm on McDonald’s Island, a nar-row, nearly two-mile long strip of

land on the north side of the Middle Chan-nel in the Harsen’s Island delta in Michigan.In his later years he is remembered as a quietman who often sat on his screened-in porchoverlooking his domain. However, there is no death certificate on

record and no gravesite marking his remains.A picture of him has yet to be identified. It’snot surprising that he doesn’t show up on anyFederal census records, as even to this day aboat is required to reach his remote, out-of-the-way island home.

When McDonald died in 1938 at the ageof 89, his farmhouse, a two-story structure,was left to his son Ed, who in the 1920s builtthree cottages on the property that he rentedout. A new owner leveled the McDonaldfarmhouse and some of the other buildingsjust a few years ago and replaced them with aseasonal cottage. What is known about Zeke McDonald,

who was born in 1849, is that he made some

fine hollow, bottom-board decoys in the St.Clair Flats style, birds considered desirablesince the earliest days of collecting. All of Mc-Donald’s decoys tend to be on the large size.His black ducks were made in a content, lowhead style, while the divers – canvasbacks, red-heads, bluebills, ringbills and buffleheads –sport high heads, not as nervous sentinels butalert, as though they just landed and are sizingup the situation.

EEaarrllyy oorriiggiinnaall ppaaiinntt rreeddhheeaadd hheenn ((aabboovvee)) aanndd rreeddhheeaadd ddrraakkee wwiitthh aa llaatteerr sseeccoonndd ccooaatt ooffppaaiinntt.. TThhee aarrcchheedd ssiiddee ppaaiinntt oonn tthhee hheenn iiss iinnddiiccaattiivvee ooff hhiiss ss iimmpplliissttiicc ppaaiinntt ppaatttteerrnnss..HHEENN//JJOOEE GGAARRGGAAGGLLIIAANNOO CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN,,DDRRAAKKEE//BBOOBB SSAAKKUUTTAA CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN

BY RONALD SWANSON

AABBOOVVEE:: AA ZZeekkee MMccDDoonnaalldd ccaannvvaassbbaacckk wwiitthhtthhee MMiiddddllee CChhaannnneell aanndd MMccDDoonnaalldd IIssllaanndd iinntthhee bbaacckkggrroouunndd..

36Decoy Magazine

In chapter 1, entitledCanvasback, in CluneWalsh and Lowell Jack-son’s 1983 book, “Wa-terfowl Decoys ofMichigan and the LakeSt. Clair Region,”Michael and Julie Hallwrote:“The Zeke McDon-

ald canvasback (fig. 25)is a primitive. The hol-low construction of thisdecoy indicates that Mc-Donald was not un-aware of the local tradition of decoy makingaround him in the St. Clair Flats, yet hisimage of a canvasback is highly original. Thegreat head on his can rises on its slim necklike a giant lollipop on a stick. The broadoversized bill juts out from the bird’s face likea snow plow blade. The decoy’s bodyis flat and simple but it is punctu-ated with a beautiful tiny tail thatgives the whole carving a sense ofstyle. As art, the McDonald canvasback hasboth the originality and authority that makea good, collectible primitive.”The late Barney Crandall wrote the Michi-

gan chapter in Joe Engers 1990 publication,“The Great Book of Wildfowl Decoys,” andin it he disagreed with the Hall’s opinionsand voiced his own:“Another maker who styled decoys with a

forceful and challenging appearance was ZekeMcDonald, who lived at the turn of the (last)century on a small island in the Flats knownas McDonald’s. His redheads and canvas-backs appear ready to dominate any kind ofwater and wind while his blacks are overbear-ing masters of the marsh. “One collector has described the strong

head and jutting bill of the McDonald can-vasback as a “snowplow blade,” but I liken itto a big-nosed, avuncular professor aggres-sively laying the facts of history on a class of

TThhiiss aalleerr tt ccaannvvaassbbaacckk ppeerr ffeeccttllyy ii lllluussttrraatteess tthhee ssiimmpplliicciittyyaanndd aaccccuurraaccyy ooff MMccDDoonnaalldd’’ss ppaaiinntt ppaatttteerrnn.. AApppplliieedd oovveerr aa pprr iimmeerr wwiitthh uunnccoommpplliiccaatteedd ssttrrookkeess ,, hhee aavvooiiddeedd aa hhaarrdd eeddggee lliinnee wwhheerree tthhee ccoolloorrss mmeett.. RROONN SSWWAANNSSOONN CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN

DDeelliiccaattee aalleerr tt bbuuff ff lleehheeaadd nneeaarrllyy wwoorrnn ttootthhee bbaarree wwoooodd.. RROONN SSWWAANNSSOONN CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN

RRaarree rriinnggbbii llll hheenn,, aa ssppeecciieess nneeaarrllyy uunnhheeaarrdd ooffoonn tthhee FFllaattss,, rreeppaaiinntteedd bbyy aa ffoorrmmeerr oowwnneerr oofftthhee rriigg.. UUnnlliikkee bblluueebbii llllss aanndd rreeddhheeaaddss,, rriinnggbbiill llsshhaavvee aa bbrroowwnn eeyyee.. RROONN SSWWAANNSSOONN CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN

GooseBay Harsens

Island

DickinsonIsland

SquirrelIsland

Big MuscamootBay

LittleMuscamootBay

Pearl Beach

Sears Island

McDonald Island

FisherBay

PolletBay

Michigan

Canada

WisconsinDetroit

GreenBay

Lake Michigan

Lake Huron

Lake Superior

Canada Club

Mi dd le

Ch an ne l

May/June 2011 37

All of them are fully hollowed and have a firstrate brass screw holding the head from within(refer to the x-ray). Some of his decoys have a5/8-inch plug in the bottom board just belowthe screw, possibly a later addition to plug ahole made to tighten the head screw. The ovalbottom-boards are held in place by as manyas 30 small flathead nails (no “leakers” areknown). The neck shelf is raised to receive abeautifully carved head with a carefully de-tailed bill that features mandible carving, a V-shaped chin, a nail and his unique triangularnostrils. The glass eyes are first class taxidermyproducts, likely from Germany. This Flats is-land farmer spared no expense in an effort tocreate superb decoys that would last for wellover 100 years. There are a few very fine examples of Mc-

Donald’s decoys in original paint, and al-though the patterns are simple they are verycorrect. The brushstrokes on his canvasbacksare feathery and unadorned, without anywing shapes or speculums, just plain blackand white. No hens are known to exist. Thepaint patterns on his redheads are also verysimple yet accurately portray the sexes. Theblack ducks have body feathering and excel-lent comb or scratch painting on the head.Hen puddle ducks, such as his pintails andmallards, have additional scratch painting onthe bodies. One example of a bufflehead of undeter-

mined sex – the paint has been worn off com-pletely – is still desirable for its dainty form. Itappears to be an early decoy, as it shows signsof having a dog-bone shaped lead weightrather than the typical two-inch diameterround weight generally attached to the bot-tom-board. Not only is it proportionatelysmaller than his other species, the bottom-

PPiinnttaaii ll hheenn wwiitthh ddee lliiccaattee ssccrraattcchh ffeeaatthheerr ppaaiinntt oovveerrtthhee bbooddyy aanndd hheeaadd.. BBOOBB SSAAKKUUTTAA CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN

TThhee bboottttoomm bbooaarrddss oonn MMccDDoonnaalldd’’ss ddeeccooyyss aarree ppeerr ffeeccttllyy oovvaall wwiitthh aa rroouunndd lleeaadd wweeiigghhtt ssccrreewweeddiinnttoo tthheemm aanndd aa lleeaatthheerr lloooopp aattttaacchheedd ffoorr tthhee aanncchhoorr ttiiee lliinnee ..

38 Decoy Magazine

Point, hunting with Phineas Reeves, and else-where on Lake St. Clair, but there is no evi-dence it established a trend. (As of now, theearliest known maker of hollow, bottom-board decoys is Albert D. Laing of New YorkCity, who used his rig in the 1830s for markethunting.) Maybe the Hall’s designation of “primi-

tive” in reference to McDonald’s decoys isclose to appropriate when judging just a sin-gle canvasback, but when reviewing his entirebody of work it falls short. There is a distinctfamily look to all of his decoys. His view orinterpretation is a caricature of each type orspecies of duck, but McDonald’s birds areconsistent, smooth, balanced, very well con-structed and the overall look is quite appeal-ing. As for Crandall’s description, the decoysdon’t appear professorial to this writer, butthey no doubt have an appearance that isboth “forceful and challenging.” Considering the construction, McDon-

ald’s decoys are actually quite sophisticated.

uninterested students. Only the spectacles(perhaps a pince nez) are absent.”When these words were respectively writ-

ten, few collectors, including the Halls andCrandall, realized that McDonald was a pio-neering carver who may have been making de-coys as early as the 1870s. It’s quite possiblethat along with Harsen’s Island locals,Charles and Fred Unger and BudgeonSampier, or Chris Smith of Algonac and NateQuillen of Pointe Mouille – all among theearliest documented Michigan decoy makers– he might have been one of the originatorsor the St. Clair Flats style of hollow, bottom-board decoys. Early Toronto carvers like George Warin

and Phineas Reeves, both English immi-grants, supplied hollow, bottom-board decoysfor Lake Erie’s Long Point Club (establishedin 1866) and the nearby St. Clair Flats Shoot-ing Company or Canada Club (established in1874). The Canada Club was just a short dis-tance across the St. Clair River from Harsen’sIsland in the central part of the St. Clair Flats.All of these men helped establish the “Flats”style of decoy. It will never be proved who wasthe originator, but as of this writing Zeke isnow placed in some very special company. In 1863 George A. Peabody of Danvers,

Massachusetts brought hollow, bottom-boarddecoys to those local waters during the CivilWar, where they were used at both Long

MMaallllaarrdd hheenn wwiitthh aa ccooaatt ooff ddaarrkkeerr ppaaiinntt oonntthhee bbooddyy,, lliikkeellyy ttoo uussee iitt aass aa bbllaacckk dduucckk.. BBOOBB SSAAKKUUTTAA CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN

May/June 2011 39

board is not a perfect oval, another indicationthat it’s an earlier bird. There are rumors of mallards but no

drakes were found for this article, althoughthere is one example of a mallard hen – a“Suzie” – being changed to a black duck witha coat of darker paint applied from the end ofthe chest area to the tail. When handling thedecoy, a mallard hen wing flash or speculumis nearly visible. Early mallards are uncom-mon in the Flats area of Lake St. Clair, butthere were a few made by the Toronto makerson the Canadian side, probably to the orderof some of the club gunners, as opposed tomarket hunters who preferred canvasbacksand redheads. It’s possible Zeke did a littleguiding in his early days to augment his farm-ing activities, or perhaps he just enjoyed a mal-lard or two occasionally, as they are deliciousducks. His rarest decoy, a ringbill hen, an almost

unheard of species on the Flats (examples byGeorge Warin and Tom Schroeder have beenidentified), has been repainted by artist BillRose. Although it’s the size of his bluebills,the brown eyes identify the species. There is no indication that Zeke McDon-

ald was a professional decoy maker. Althougha good number of his decoys have survived,perhaps 50 or 60 in total, their numbers areinsufficient to suggest he carved birds formore than his own or his family’s rig. Thatthey survived is no doubt due to their utility,high quality and careful family use. Very fewhave shot in them, indicating a high level ofpride in the art form and sportsmanship inhunting over the rig. Due to those efforts increating a simple decoy, his legacy will sustain.

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