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Duck-calling contestants at Stuttgart have a closely timed 90 seconds to demonstrate their abilities. (Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department photo) Duck callers to carry on a Stuttgart tradition Saturday, Nov 12, 2005 By Joe Mosby For almost 70 years now, various deep thinkers have tried to analyze Stuttgart's duck calling championships. Why has this seemingly minor activity, blowing a duck call, been such a long-running success while carefully crafted endeavors of all sorts have either fallen by the wayside or never gotten off the ground? The World's Duck Calling Championship is coming up again. For many years, it was THE event. Now it's the climax of a nearly weeklong Wings Over the Prairie festival. And reasons for its success since a little-heralded debut in the Great Depression are many. One somewhat cynical view is the Stuttgart event is (1) not involved with government and (2) is run by a bunch of volunteers. More to the point, the duck calling championships reflect on Arkansas' interest in the outdoors. Duck hunting is a focus all right, but many visitors to the festival and participants in some of its activities are not duck hunters, never have and never will be. Perhaps two of the most solid reasons for its success are (1) it's fun and (2) the timing is right. It comes during the Thanksgiving break. People are off work, kids are out of school. Crops are in, and winter hasn't arrived. And it's hard to measure the intensity of most of the Stuttgart volunteers who put together the festival and the duck calling championships. It's serious business with them. This event alone lifts Stuttgart out of the doldrums of most farm economy towns in east Arkansas. Anyone can blow a duck call. Hand a call to someone who has never used one. Have the person blow just a little. A sound comes out. If a dog or a cat is around, the animal will perk up sharply. As unduck-like as this sound by the novice may be, it's something akin to an animal sound. Now put a call in the hands of someone who has heard wild ducks - mallards. Someone who has hunted them. Let this person practice a little. Perhaps provide a tape or CD of mallard calling. Then you are getting closer to what the duck calling championships are all about. The contests are sport musical competitions. Serious competition duck callers select their instruments every bit as carefully and critically as a symphony member chooses a violin. Stradivarius has equivalents in Chick Major, Butch Richenback and Rick Dunn. It's hard to get an accurate count on how many visitors come to Stuttgart for the Wings Over the Prairie festival, but the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce's estimate of "over 60,000" is reasonable. It's a far cry from Nov. 24, 1936, when Thomas E. Walsh of Greenville, Miss., bested 16 fellow competitors to win the "National Duck Calling Contest," also on Main Street in downtown Stuttgart. His prize was a hunting coat valued at $6.60. Walsh didn't use a duck call, only his mouth. The autumn of 1936 was a dreary period in Stuttgart and in Arkansas, along with most of the world. It was the seventh year of the Great Depression. Historians say the Depression had bottomed out, that it could not get worse and that it ended only when World War II arrived. Credit for the idea of a duck calling championship is given to Thad McCollum of Stuttgart, one of a large number of McCollums who have been active in various aspects of duck hunting for generations. A friend, Dr. H.V. Glenn, convinced the Stuttgart American Legion post to sponsor the contest, and a committee of three men as appointed to handle it - Glenn, McCollum and Arthur Shoemaker. Verne Tindall of Stuttgart later replaced Shoemaker. The winner of that 1936 event, Walsh had a secret along with not using a call. He raised ducks as a hobby at his home and had listened to their sounds for years. Only one other contestant has won the World's Duck Calling Championship without the use of a duck call, and he also was from Greenville, Miss. Herman Callouet did it in 1942. The only woman who has won the world contest was Pat Peacock of Stuttgart in 1955 and 1956, and she will be highly active in the background activities of the 2005 event. Of the 69 previous winners of the world title, just 29 have been Arkansas residents. Others have come from as far away as California, and 18 have come from the Upper Midwest. There are nine contests this year, some on Friday, Nov. 25, and others on Saturday, Nov. 26, with the world competition starting Saturday afternoon at the traditional stage in the middle of Main Street in downtown Stuttgart. -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
