Dave and Dean thanks for sharing pictures and details of your trip, what a nice winter outing that must have been. It looks like you had more snow down there than we do up here on the NH coast.

In the last ten or fifteen years that has often been the case. Cape Cod, western and southern MA, CT, RI and the NYC areas have received more snow than northeast MA, NH and Maine. And, yup they have more snow this time too.

Dean,
Could the George Rckwell you speak of be affliliated with the private duck hunting club that was near me as I was growing up? This club was referred to as 'rockwells'. I have not spoken yet to the last caretaker. A nuclear power plant now sits on the property.
I am awaiting a cd of pictures of Cedar Point duck hunting clubhouses. The origianl was a 'boat'. Looks more like a barge to me. With these pics is also one of Pres Eisenhower hunting there. Will post for you guys to decide if is a parker he is hunting with. Blessings, Lee

Lee, where is/was this "Rockwell's"?

Ike hunted grouse and woodcock with a Parker for sure but for waterfowl hunting I can't say.

The Rockwell marsh was on the western basin of Lake Erie. On the north side of the mouth of the Toussaint river. Davis Besse nuke plant now owns all this property.

Certainly we would like to look at the Ike pictures and will try our best to identify his guns.

Dean, what information do you have of Ike shooting "real birds" with Parkers? I shot pheasants for years with my Dad on a piece of ground very close to Ike's Gettysburg property. In those days, Ike's relationship to bird hunting was far from my mind.

Bill, I should have qualified that by saying I have no evidence of Ike ever owning a Parker but I was e-mailed a photo of him and an elderly NH gent and a pair of setters with Ike holding the 16 ga DHE with straight stock owned by the older gent. Also included was a letter from Ike to the fellow stating that he had every intention of returning the Parker someday and that he planned to get one of his own. I had a chance to buy that Parker about six or seven years ago (maybe more) for $3K but missed it by mere minutes. I've told this sad story before...

Wonder where Ike's M42 .410 is?

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower--A great leader indeed
 

Mae and I are history buffs, John. This past summer (2009) we took a three week trip from MI- first to Gettysburg- and we visited the Eisenhower farm. I also asked about his guns, being a Winchester man, I knew he loved his M42 for quail, possibly skeet. The curator happened to be a fellow gunner, he told me they were all out in the Eisenhower Museum in Abeline. All but one, on display behind glass was a fishing rod and reel given to "Ike" by his Chief of Staff in WW11- Gen. Walter Bedell Smith- and a Beretta 20 semi-auto skeet gun given to "Ike" by another staff member later on.

I am going to guess that when Mr. Murphy and his father hunted phesants near the Eisenhower Farm adjacent to Gettysburg, it was prior to Nov. 23 1963. We saw the Secret Service annex and the older armory room (no weapons) set up to protect the Eisenhowers after the tragic death of President Kennedy. I can still recall where I was (USMC- LeJeune) when a Major came in and told us that our Commander-In-Chief had been shot by a sniper in Dallas--

The best story about "Ike" I have yet heard was his way of explaining leadership. He took out a piece of string and placed it on his desk, and said that "Leadership is like moving a piece of string from A to B-- if you get behind it and shove, it just balls up and goes nowhere- BUT if you get out in front of it, it will follow you where ever you go"!!