This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

History Blog: Duck Hunting and Clubs

Duck clubs and duck hunting were popular in Alvarado for over 150 years.

When Europeans first came to the South Bay, they marveled at how many ducks and water fowl were on the marshes.

After statehood, duck hunting became a popular sport, with hunters coming to Alvarado from Oakland and San Francisco. The Alvarado Hotel advertised as an ideal place for hunters to stay over in the area.

The marshes were converted to salt flats, but the ducks still used them on their migration. The salt operators leased the salt flats to different hunting clubs like the Pacific Life Gun Club or Willow Lodge Club. The clubs built a club building for overnight stays and a number of hunting blinds. Other hunters tried to hunt on salt flats, so the different clubs had to hire keepers to keep an eye out for poachers. In 1895, C. W. Crane of San Francisco and L. Gould of Oakland were caught by game warden Donovan shooting ducks on leased land. They were fined $70 to the court in Oakland.

Find out what's happening in Union Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Duck hunting was popular over the years in Alvarado with newspaper reports detailing what local hunter bagged his limit appearing from the 1880s all the way through the 1950s, with clubs like the Sunset Gun Club and Marsh Gun Blub.

In 1955, four men, described only by their business position, were arrested for hunting ducks with “baited” ponds, meaning that they put duck feed in the ponds to attract the ducks. The men were “President of Granny Goose Potato Chips, the General Manager of S&W Foods, a Burlingame financier and President of the United Can & Glass Company.”

Find out what's happening in Union Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Laughing Mallard Duck Club and the Ugly Duckling Duck Club were the last two duck clubs in Alvarado in 1998, when the city passed an ordinance banning all hunting within the city limits, thus ending a tradition going back almost 150 years.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?