DuMochelle Auction?

[Jay Gardner]

Been in the woods since Friday and have not heard much feedback on the DuMochelle auction? Anyone come away a winner?

[Bill Bolyard]

Jay,

I ended up with the 20ga straight grip VHE skeet gun.

Bill

[Bill Murphy]

Great neighborhood, that Detroit. I have a few Winchesters that came from the same neighborhood. Grosse Point Farms must be a good place to live. This guy was a GM big wig. My guns came from a gentleman who lived in a house (mansion) once owned by Harley Earle, the great, more than great, Buick designer. The fellow who owned my guns was not a GM guy, but was an oil guy from the Detroit area who owned a thousands of acres hunting preserve in Ontario. He had some kind of relationship with Harley Earle. My "Joe Knapp Club" Model 21 duck gun came from him. Apparently, some of the GM guys were great gun guys and hunters.

[Bill Bolyard]

This auction was of the estate of Al Warren, he was a vice president I be leave of GM that negotiated with the UAW. I met Al around 25 years ago, I doubt he would remember me, but he was a gentlemen, and a conservationist

Bill.

[Jay Gardner]

Got some more scoop this afternoon on my way back down. Report: most of the guns went for close to retail price; DuMochelle had no idea what they were doing or how to handle the guns; a rent-a-cop was in charge of describing guns over the phone Friday afternoon/evening; Feds came in and told DuMochelle that they could not sell some of the exotic mounts or the ivory. Sounds like a cluster-#@!&.

Hopefully some of the guns found good homes with Parker guys. Glad I did not waste time trying to get a "deal."

By the way, Grosse Pointe has always been serious money; old money; quiet money. I am sure there are several Parkers that would command serious lust sitting in some of those old mansions.

Not surprised about the GM Execs being hunters/shooters. Roger Smith was a big time hunter and had/has quite a collection of fine guns. For those of you familiar with the Detroit suburbs, Neville Geeke was Roger's gunsmith.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Most of the big duck clubs in the Mitchell's Bay / Walpole Island area were either owned or controlled by car manufacturer money. I think they've all either gone back to the indians or been sold off now though. The last that I knew of was The Canada Club, they had their last season last year I believe.

Destry

[Jay Gardner]

Destry,

Sorry to hear of the demise of the Canada Club. Never had an opportunity to hunt there or even see the place but from all accounts it was quite a club.

Jay

[Destry L. Hoffard]

It was the Winous Point of Canada, the oldest in the country by all accounts. I never got to shoot there either, a friend did a couple years ago though. They never busted a cap but getting to see the clubhouse and everything would have been well worth the trip.

Destry

[C Roger Giles]

I thought the Canada Club was further east on lake Erie past Point Pelee and not in the Detroit/Windsor area. I have an aquaintence who shot there (Canada Club) a few times. He was in charge of the punters at the Ottawa Club on Sandusky Bay that is right next to the Winnous Point Club.

Roger

[John Dallas]

Canada club was across the channel from Harsen's island in the Detroit River. I never had the chance to shoot there, but I understand it was coats and ties for dinner, with the oldest member sitting at the head of the table, doing the serving. The gunning logs looked like a history of American business

[Destry L. Hoffard]

It was located in the waters controlled by the Walpole Island Indian Reservation.

From what I was told, they closed it because the clubhouse and grounds needed a lot of work but the members weren't willing to pay all the money unless the Indians gave them a longer lease.

The Indians refused and so ended the oldest club in Canada. Again, just what I was told by a local, maybe not the whole story or the right story.

[Jay Gardner]

Canada club was across the channel from Harsen's island in the Detroit River. I never had the chance to shoot there, but I understand it was coats and ties for dinner, with the oldest member sitting at the head of the table, doing the serving. The gunning logs looked like a history of American business

Exactly how it was described to me; coat and tie, white linnen table cloths, china and silver. The logs, I was told, date back over 100 years and detail by blind who hunted and birds taken. Hopefully all of the antiquities will find their ways into appreciative hands.

[Bill Bolyard]

Destry and Jay,

Wouldn't it be great to have a book about the club based on the club book, old photos and story's by the few that are still alive.

Bill

[Jay Gardner]

I couldn't agree more, Bill. And given Destry's passion for and knowlege of waterfowling and his ability to write well, I think he would be the perfect researcher and author.

Jay

[Bill Davis]

A pistol grip VHE 20 skeet in very nice shape ended up with a friend of mine in Pa. It's an early Remington transition gun, not marked Parker on the bottom. He also bought the 30" DHE 28 which is also nice. The guns arrived this morning.

[Bill Murphy]

Lester Ruwe, another Grosse Point Farms resident and serious gun guy and hunter, owned a spread in Ontario he called Hubertus. Does anyone know about this hunting club or maybe someone we know may have shot there? The Ruwes were serious gunners who hunted all over the world. Kevin M. and I happened into a yard sale in the Washington, D.C. area where the Ruwe hunting equipment was being sold. Lester Ruwe's son, Nicholas had an ambassador's position and his wife, Nancy was the social secretary at the White House for some time.

[Anthony Cain]

Thanks for the education, I was a photograper for GM, and I remember taking Roger B. Smith's Photograph for a article in the Atlanta Journal & Constitution. I met him at the Ritze Carlton Hotel in Buckhead. The AJC sent their own Photograper/reporter, I was there to take photos for GM, and to give them alternative photos for the AJC Article, in case Mr. Smith did not care for the AJC's photos. I met Mr. Smith on several other occations, I wish I had known about the history of hunt clubs, and the GM Leadership. Those days If I worked 12 hours it was a short day. Little time to get out in the woods, My bird dog, a Vizsla named Frida was raised by my wife because I worked so much.

[John Dallas]

The Rewe Marsh was at the lower end of the Detroit River, just north of Amherstberg, Ontario, and about 4 miles or so north of the point where the River dumps into the Northwest corner of Laker Erie. The marsh was sold about 4 years ago for several million $$. Don't know anything about the new owners. When sold, it was two parcels, as I understand it. One was the marsh itself, and the other was the cabin site which was about a half mile away. They may have been sold separately

[Bill Bolyard]

Roger Smith also hunted at the Turtle Lake Club in northern Michigan. They have around 26,000 acres, the club was establish in the late 1880's. Many of our political leaders from the postmaster general to supreme court justices, and Captains of industry have hunted there. Al Warren was one of them along with Mr Freuhoff that owns that little trailer company

Bill

[John Dallas]

Fruehoff was a member of a duck marsh about 5 miles SE of the Ruwe Marsh. There was (and still is) a lot of American $$$ in those duck marshes

[Bill Murphy]

From what I understand about large Ontario holdings, they were originally railroad land leased on long term leases, not actually purchased until recent times.

[John Dallas]

Haven't heard that angle. In SW Ontario, much of the land was granted by the Crown as "Concessions" - land given to someone for service to the Crown. Today in the area where I am invited to hunt, most of the roads are described as "4th concession", "5th concession", etc.

The marsh I shoot has been owned by the same American family for something around 80 years. At the time that my friend's grandfather bought the property (500 acres or so) his friends all kidded him about spending money for a soggy piece of marsh. Today, it's worth millions, I'm sure

[Bill Murphy]

I understood the Crown gave such concessions to the railroad, something like 25 or 50 miles on each side of the tracks. In turn, the railroad was allowed to sell or least such land to finance their operations. Don't know the details, but it sounds like a good deal if you had a few bucks at the time.