Duncan Ducharme

(1912 - 1972) Delta Marsh, Manitoba

When Little Joe Ducharme quit decoy carving for James Ford Bell, founder of General Mills Food, he was proceeded by his son Duncan Ducharme. Dunc carved his canvasbacks according to previous Bell decoys, but created unique bluebills, mallards, pintails and teal. For the Gaylord hunting lodge on Lake Winnipegosis, Ducharme also produced a rig of redheads. His total output numbers in the thousands and features characteristics typical of the Delta Marsh. The solid decoys Ducharme designed are solid with rounded chests and tails. Ducharme crafted high heads of pine with a penknife and set them far back over the shoulders. Some of his decoys received a wooden keel. Simple paint jobs coat each decoy; Bell’s head guide, Peter Ward, painted most of Ducharme’s birds.

Ducharme was an outdoorsman year-round. In the fall, he hunted and guided, but turned to trapping mink in the winter and muskrats in the spring. Each summer, he dug wild seneca root and worked on farms in the area. Duncan Ducharme, along with his uncles Dan and Dick, his father Joe and his cousins Rod and Louis, made the Ducharme name a synonym to hunting the Delta marshes.