Gordon MacQuarrie Pilgrimage
 

For those of you who love the writing of Gordon MacQuarrie:

We just returned from attending the 3 day Gordon MacQuarrie Pilgrimage in Barnes, Wisconsin, two whoops and a holler north of Hayward, Wisconsin. The Barnes Area Historical Association puts on this event which includes presentations on various aspects of MacQuarrie's writing (such as the origin of "The Old Brown Mackinaw"), visits to spots immortalized in his stories (like the "Hole in the Wall" and the old "Ice House"), culminating in a canoe trip down the Brule River.

You should check out the Barnes Area Historical Association website: bahamuseum.org

There are new books -- collections of MacQuarrie's writings -- for sale on the site, and you can become a member of the Old Duck Hunters Circle (Elaine and I are now proud life members).

It's nice to see these small historical organizations keeping alive those things from our sporting heritage and life that have been so important to those of us who cherish the sporting life. If you are a MacQuarrie fan, you should consider attending one of their pilgrimage events.

Photos:

1-3. The small Barnes Area Historical Museum has a room devoted to MacQuarrie. Lots of memorabilia from the ODHA.
4. One night we had a pine knot campfire with ODHA trivia and a performance by the Incorrigibles
5-6 Visits to sites immortalized in MacQuarrie's writings were a high spot of the event for me. Visiting the remains of the old ice house (from my favorite MacQuarrie story, "We Shall Gather by the Ice House") and MacQuarrie's logs-on-end cabin, the beginning point for so many of his tales, made the trip so worthwhile.

Wow, what great stuff! I have been a museum freak for over 50 years and am lucky to live within 25 miles of Washington, DC, so have the "biggest and best" contenders in the museum world to visit (Smithsonian complexes, National Endowment for the Arts, National Portrait Gallery, Udvar Hazy Air Museum etc.). But in my experience the smaller museums in the hinterlands often hold much greater allure. Some of the very best I remember visiting are the Annie Oakley museum in Greenville OH (housed in the same mansion as the Lowell Thomas museum), the Islenos Museum in St. Bernard LA (dedicated to the Canary Islanders who settled there in 1778), and the Whalehead Museum in Corolla NC, dedicated to the waterfowling culture of the Outer Bank's Currituck Sound. Your excursion sounds like a great road trip! Neat way to wind up the summer!

Kevin, I could not agree more about the smaller museums and historical societies. A couple of years ago, I got permission to examine (and clean) an L. C. Smith Pigeon gun used by Fred Gilbert. What a wonderful collection the Dickenson County Museum has. I've done programs for some of our local historical societies, always a pleasure. We need to support these smaller venues that have sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to continue operation.

I'm proud to be a member of the Old Duck Hunters Association, Inc. (Inc. for Incorrigibles).

Support your local historical society! (And consider joining the Old Duck Hunters.)

Garry - is there a way to join ODHA, Inc without making the pilgrimage? Is there a website? I’ll plan that trip for the future, but won’t get there until sometime next year…..

Thanks,
Dave

Dave,

You can most certainly become a member of the ODHA without attending the Pilgrimage. Go to the Barnes Area Historical Association site and choose the Gordon MacQuarrie link for membership information. The site is: bahamuseum.org

The Pilgrimage is generally scheduled for the last weekend in August prior to Labor Day.

Garry, I have the trilogy, but I have to admit I didn’t remember “We Shall Gather by the Icehouse”. So I searched for it. What a fine piece of writing by arguably the finest outdoor writer ever to come out of the Midwest. Thanks for sharing your pilgrimage story.

Thanks, Garth! Check out that website I posted. Dave Evenson has edited 4 “new” MacQuarrie books with stories and articles by MacQuarrie, but not in the other books. So nice to have them all published again!

Vintage pic of “the cabin”. Good to know it’s been well cared for. Garry, is the cabin privately owned?

The Cabin is privately owned, and although we could not get into it on this Pilgrimage, we had permission to walk the grounds. The shed where the Old Brown Mackinaw was hung (see the story by that name) is still standing, as is MacQuarrie's writing shack that he used while waiting for his cabin to be built.

His hunting cronies had cabins next door and those families are still in possession of them. We got to visit them and meet and talk with the descendants.

Anyone planning a visit, or interested in becoming a member, please PM me and I can put you in touch with someone at the BAHA. The museum closes after Labor Day.

Garth, you appear to be a good candidate for the ODHA Circle!

Thanks to Garry I just got a new shirt...

https://i.imgur.com/2MQYKb2l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xZtXKTll.jpg

They sent me a note saying that the shirts are really reserved for member, of which I am not one, but hey...I got the t-shirt! :)