A couple of weeks ago I took my daughter up to Lake Tahoe for her first ski trip. The journey to the mountains brought me unexpectedly through some gorgeous landscapes, rich in decoy history. To get to Tahoe from Healdsburg, I had to take Highway 37 across the northern portion of San Pablo Bay. This route takes me over the Richard "Fresh Air" Janson Bridge, dedicated as such by Congressman Mike Thompson, a civic worker and decoy collector. After driving through the hallowed Janson territory, I cruised up to Interstate 80 and passed the Suisun Marsh to the east.
The Suisun Marsh is the largest contiguous estuarine marsh in the United States. It is named after the native people who lived there year round in large domed houses and harvested the bounty of the marsh and surrounding hills. They lived this way undisturbed until 1776. During that historic year, the Colonists declared their independence and Captain Juan Bautista de Anza arrived on what is now known as the San Francisco peninsula with a group of spanish settlers who were charged by the viceroy of New Spain to colonize the area. Early contact with the Suisun was peaceful and trades were made for food and glass beads. Later, as the peninsula's deep harbor became more valuable to several interests, including Spanish, Russian and American, pressure mounted to control the area, and the Suisun peoples, lacking the armaments of the Europeans, were squeezed out. Ultimately, U.S. settlers won with the "bear flag" revolt and the whole area of present day California was sold to the U.S. government by the Spanish for 15 million dollars.
While other marshland areas around the growing city of San Francisco were developed, farmed, and inhabited the Suisun Marsh remained relatively undisturbed. This is attributed to the high salinity of the soil, which unlike the San Pablo bay area to the East, made farming the reclaimed marshland difficult. As the "west was being won" railroad tracks were laid across the marsh and provided day trip access for market hunters and wealthy sportsman coming from the city. When James "Bud" Altenbern arrived in the area after marrying in 1938 and starting a new job at the Basalt Steel Mill, the marsh was still holding a large number of migrating birds, and with the federal government opening the Grizzly Island Game Management Area in 1948, the marsh became a permanent wildlife refuge and protected hunting area that exists to this day. It is on the banks of Grizzly Island that this decoy, pictured above, was used by Bud and his wife "Skip," his favorite hunting partner. Mr. Altenbern carved this fine pintail hen body from solid redwood and used sugar pine for the head. It still bears the scuffs of green paint from rubbing the sides of Altenbern's homemade Tule Splitter, a small double-ended flat bottom boat used to "split" the tule reeds. This decoy was originally bought from Mr. Altenbern by Bill Mori, whom I interviewed below. It came into my possession after being purchased at the auction of the Somers Headley collection. This pintail is unique and mysterious as it has glass eyes which appear black, until side lighting reveals a red iris. "We have not seen this type of eye on any other West Coast decoy and have not learned their origin." (Wildfowl Decoys, Miller & Hanson, 1989, p.169)
It is fitting to me that this decoy has mysterious eyes for it comes from a mysterious place. As I sped passed the marsh, which was just shrugging off the last of the morning fog, I searched my mind for an explanation. I imagined some small glass beads held in the hand of a young Suisun Indian just after a trade to some Spaniards in need of sturgeon meat. I imagined the beads lost to time then rediscovered in the marsh by a young Bud Altenbern and made into the unknown eyes of my mysterious Suisun pintail decoy.
