history

I started in the waterfowl business in 1975. Guess you should know this is Lonny Peterson. My First club was located about a mile east of the little town of Nelson on Lundberg Family Farms. At that time Terry Williams a friend from childhood and I went under the name P & W Duck Club. Anyone that goes back a few years and has hunted this area has more than likely heard about the fantastic hunting at P & W's Fishfarm, the nickname given that ranch.

In 1979 C. W. Johnson gave us the opportunity to develop the Murdock Ranch approximately 5000 acres extending from a mile north of Road 67 to almost 2 miles south of the Gridley-Colusa Highway. Mr. Johnson owned the north half of the ranch and his sister owned the southern portion.
In 1983 Charles Schwab (the discount broker) and Jay Kellett (vice president of Merrill-Lynch) bought just the hunting rights on the majority of the north Murdock.
These are two of the greatest gentlemen you'd ever want to meet. I worked for them for a couple of years but there was a conflict of interest keeping the landowner and new hunting rights owners happy.

We Still had the south Murdock til the end of the 84-85 season when Mr. Johnson's sister's son came in and took over the south Murdock. Hence the Murdock Gun Club of today.
A couple of points I wanted to make at this point. We were, as far as I know, the first club to use 3-person blinds, which we built ourselves. Also we were the first to use the rotation system of which we still use today.
Larry had worked for me on and off since around 1981. In 1985 under the name of Cherokee Duck, Larry developed the McGowan Ranch into a premium duck club which of course today is Howard Slough Refuge.
Silvernail - Peterson Duck Clubs inception began in the 95-96 season and will be going strong as long as we can still lift a shovel and fire a shotgun.

I was one of about 10 hunters that first shot at the "Fish Farm", in the early 70's, when it opened. I think the group that leased the hunting rights was called the California Sportsman. That was the first official duck club that I was in. It was by far the best out of 12 - 14 that I've been in since.

If I recall correctly, there were 5 hunting sites, with 2 single fiberglass tanks at each site. The hunting area was 250 acres, so we had about 50 acres apiece. Just by luck, we were given the center blind, which I've since learned is often the best. We could see the Nelson store from our blind, about 3/4 mile the to west. We shot 416 ducks and 27 geese. We could shoot 7 days per week and the limit was 7 per day.

The property was owned by two brothers, last name was something like Lunstrom. They didn't burn or disc, they left the fields fallow every other year instead. The second year, we were moved to different fields and were never able to keep enough water in the field. The third year, we lost the property.

We paid $250 apiece, or $500 for the site. Years later, I looked into leasing a blind there. The cost was $2500 per site!!

I am now 65 years old and a little bit disabled. But I still love to hunt ducks and am currently looking for a place to hunt, that's within my modest means. I am considering an ATV to get to and from the blind. I was a member of Wilderness Unlimited, but when I became disabled, they wouldn't let me use an ATV on the duck properties. I am now inactive with them.

I thought you might like to hear my little story, and perhaps use some of it to enhance your history page.

Please let me know if you have something that might fit my pocketbook and needs. Senior discount?? HA!

Sincerely,
Ed Keeton