Heritage Auction Final Digital 11-17

collector community in decoy history by selling the Mitchell Fulcher book to the public.
In 2013, Howard Johnson was elected as the new president of the association with the mandate
to increase the club’s educational activities and further increase our involvement with the Harkers
Island Festival. Through the energy of several new association members Robbie Smith, Chase Luker
and Randy Nance and Jerry Talton with the carver’s guild, our interaction with the Core Sound
Carvers Guild and the Harkers Island Festival in general increased dramatically. Additionally, the
decoy auctions of the Roy Willis decoy collection which was held in the Core Sound Waterfowl
Museum & Heritage Center was a united effort between the decoy association, the carver’s guild and
the museum. The involvement of Doily Fulcher in documenting the decoy collection of Roy Willis
and having the auction catalog published was a great historical accomplishment for Carteret County
waterfowl heritage. This, accompanied with his appointment to the board of the museum, was
hopefully a giant step in bringing the decoy association, museum and the carver’s guild leaders closer
together.
Additionally, the outstanding efforts by Robbie Smith, Doily Fulcher, Karen Amspacher and Jerry
Talton in producing the video entitled Core Values was a huge success for the decoy association,
carver’s guild and museum. They jointly worked together and produced a wonderful historical
depiction of Core Sound waterfowl heritage and decoy carving. This effort will properly record the
local history as we understand it today.
The North Carolina chapter of Ducks Unlimited and the Carolina Decoy Collectors Association
have forged a new working relationship lately. This is important for all concerned due to the
historical connection of Ducks Unlimited to North Carolina. Joseph Knapp, the recognized founder
of Ducks Unlimited, invested heavily in the 1920s in thousands of acres on Knotts Island, North
Carolina and built a spacious hunting lodge and summer retreat with 32 rooms. Being an ardent
hunter with wealth he became concerned with the declining duck population in 1930 and proceeded
to try to do something about this drastic decline. Through his initial involvement with preserving
the duck population, Ducks Unlimited evolved to be the largest and most successful waterfowl
preservation organization in the world. Also, Beans Weatherly was one of our earliest decoy
collectors, started the first DU chapter in 1954 in North Carolina. The decoy collector community
also has a new connection with DU since Henry Kidd, another ardent decoy collector from Raleigh
will be our next state chairman. The Carolina Decoy Collectors Association will continue to support
Ducks Unlimited as much as possible.
The carver’s guild was successful in sponsoring a ladies carving class in Carteret County this summer
under the leadership of Jerry Talton. Hopefully, this will encourage more women to get involved in
decoy carving and collecting. The decoy association helped finance this event. Additionally, Robbie
Smith with the decoy association has been working closely with the museum to grow the new
heritage auction in 2017 into an event that will continue into the future. Collectible quality Carteret
County decoys can be donated by decoy owners and collectors. This should be very popular for
North Carolina decoy collectors, particularly collectors looking for good Carteret County decoys.
Looking into the future, the Carolina Decoy Collectors Association will strive to support decoy
related activities and achieve its goals and objectives in creating a better environment for collectors,
carvers, decoy related festivals, waterfowl heritage museums, decoy auction companies and other
related organizations like Ducks Unlimited.
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