Currituck Club

[Andy]

Reviving an old thread. Went to the Whalehead club Friday morning last week while in the OBX. That was fantastic, what a place. You can feel the nostalgia of days long gone by. There still is a long Parker hammerless in the gun room, looks like a DelGrego case color restoration. I spotted an A5, LC, a number of hammer guns (you can't get too close to them). In the private office, as stated, there is a Trojan in nice shape in a glass gun case. I asked the "museummarm" about the guns. She was rather clueless but said they were not original to the owners. The folks who knew the answer were not available to discuss it. If you're down that way make a stop of it. You cannot take photos inside but I sure wish I could with the corrugated walls, carved mahogany doors and cork floors.

[Andy]

Here's a photo of the club, the large yellow structure at the top

[William Davis]

Further south the Harkers Island NC wildfowl museum another good one . To the North, Eastern shore of Virginia, the Barrier island center at Machipongo too. One of the best late fall drives you can make is Easton Maryland to Morehead City NC on the coast road.

William

[Reggie B]

Spent some time in Duck this past spring. Lots of rich waterfowl hunting history in the area. We were there during the off-season. No traffic. No crowds. Loved it!

[Kevin McCormack]

Years ago when my kids (now in their 40s) were little, we vacationed in Duck for a week and made many side trips besides going to the beach. One of mine was up to Corolla specifically to see the Whalehead Club. At that time it had just been put on the National Historic Preservation Register and funds had just been released for its restoration. I drove up, parked right in front, and wandered right into the building, which had not been touched since its last sale and near abandonedment in the late 1950s.

The place was swarming with local craftsmen, carpenters, painters, roofers, and various other restoration artists. A lady who happened to be the lead for the restoration project asked me who I was and if I knew anything about duck hunting. At the time I had been very active in Ducks Unlimited for around 15 years and had hunted waterfowl for nearly 30. Three hours later I think she learned more about the history and traditions of the place than had been researched up until that point in time: she wound up taking me on a personal tour of the place, and I shared with her a narrative of what I knew about Atlantic coastal waterfowl hunting.

When I left she gave me a brick from the foundation of the building and I purchased by donation one of the original copper shingles which were being sold to help finance the restoration. I went back about 12 years ago and toured the restored property, on which they did a fabulous job. My two favorite memories are the individual members' rooms which at that time had hardwood wainscoting on the bottom half of the walls and corduroy wall covering above, and the colorful tile facings of the fireplaces on the second floor. A true gem of a place and one of the very best dedicated waterfowling museums.

[Andy]

Awesome story Kevin. There are rumors it's haunted and now occasionally they do nighttime ghost tours of the place. Having been through there I would NEVER stay there alone at night. No freaking way.

[Kevin McCormack]

Right across the sound from the Whalehead is Powells Point, NC. It is one of the last little villages you pass through before going over the causeway bridge to Duck and points south and the "way downs" of Salvo, Rodanthe and Waves. On the left as you approach the causeway bridge is the home of Jarvis Snow, whose father once guided at the Whalehead.

While a private residence, the house could be a premier waterfowl museum all its own with decoys, punt guns, skiffs and sinkbox accoutrements. Jarvis' wife Erleen Snow was postmistress of Powells Point PO for some years, but her real claim to fame was calling Canada geese by mouth. She learned it while accompanying her father who I believe also guided at the Whalehead Club.

She came to the national celebration of the 50th anniversary of the federal duck stamp program, which was held on the national mall in Washington DC in September of 1988 along with Richard Wolters of dog training fame, Harold Harlan who wrote the seminal book on duck call collecting, Sean Mann who went on to develop the Eastern Shore "flute type" goose call, carver Grayson Chesser from Jenkins Bridge on VAs Eastern Shore, and Nick Sapone, maker of the old time canvas over wire goose and swan decoys from Wanchese NC.

To represent out local DU Chapter, my brothers and my son and I put out a field rig of Canada goose silouettes, shells and full-body decoys on the national mall. We even put up a fully camoed pre-fab duck blind! When the scheduled exhibit time was over (5 PM) no one wanted to leave; people who didn't have a dog must have gone home and got one; there were retriever dummies flying all over the place. We didn't get out of there until near dark, but what a blast! It was truly an honor to be a part of it.

[Jeff Elder]

My buddy Chandler Sawyer is from decoy carving royalty lives there. He has in his personal collection Joseph Knapps ole fowling piece. His grandfather was a lawyer in Currituck that was friends with the Knapps. Chandler runs a museum in Currituck when he isn’t making gunning decoys.

[Big D]

My dad was a city boy who got introduced to guns and hunting by his workmates. His first duck trip was from Delaware to Currituck Sound in about 1947. Have no idea where they stayed

[Bill Murphy]

Jeff, can you tell us about Joe Knapp's gun? Pictures would be great.