The Havre de Grace Decoy Museum is an adaptation of a building that once held an indoor pool and laundry facilities for the nearby Bayou Hotel. It contains much information about decoys, waterfowl hunting, both sport and commercial, and more than 200 years of history. Havre de Grace was a major center for this activity, as the Susquehanna Flats were under a flyway that saw birds by the hundreds of thousands. In the hey day of commercial duck hunting each operation might set out several hundred decoys. As such this area had a concentration of decoy makers who might use machine production to make large quantities. The museum containes some interesting examples of profile lathes and other machinery used for such work.

There are still active decoy makers in the area today. One suspects most of the newer work is to attract tourist sales rather than waterfowl. Some of the work is of really fine craftsmanship and finish with lifelike designs and colors.

This visit was part of our 2018 Turkey Day excursion.