Our club doesn't go back to the 20's, but was formed in the years after WWII. There was a Japanese Internment camp at Newell, CA, in the middle of the Tulelake basin, on the Oregon, California border. At the time, the vast majority of birds on the Pacific Flyway funneled through the Tulelake and Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuges, some 6,000,000 ducks and geese a year.
Returning GI's could homestead 160 acres of the drained lakebed and for $1.00 could buy one of the Internment Camp buildings. Two returning GI's homesteaded one parcel and bought 3 Camp buildings to form a Duck Club, the Greenhead Lodge. They both lived in So. Cal. and ran a summer camp for boys in the summer and the Duck Club in the fall. One of them was a pilot and bought a C47 from the military and flew hunters to Tulelake to stay at the Greenhead Lodge. They charged $10.00 per day for room and board.
The venture lasted about 6 years and then they sold the property to a group of the people who had come up there to hunt and it turned into a private club but they sold all but the house and 2.5 acres. The hunting is done on the two refuges. It remains that way to this day.
My friend and I started hunting there in the early 60's in high school as a guest of the son of one of the members and eventually bought into the club when memberships became available. As has happened with so many clubs, the membership aged and when the hunting deteriorated in the 1980's, it was hard to find new members. Thus the membership dwindled down to today where the club is owned by myself, my friend and my son. We still use it for hunting ducks, geese, pheasants, quail and digger squirrels in the spring. It is a wonderful place that will someday pass to my son and hopefully will continue as a great place to hunt. I have included several photos of the old club.
Gordon
