The Broad Bill Duck Call – 1914
The letters of Maria Knapp are filled with descriptions of the land, the Knapp farmstead and life in Baldwin Township in the 1870’s. Maria mentions the abundance of wild fowl in another letter; many people in later years were attracted to the wild life available in Baldwin.
One family came to enjoy the hunting but also to start a new business.
For those who spent their falls hiding in the reeds waiting for elusive ducks the name Broad Bill Duck Call may be very familiar. How many realize that the company that made them was here in Baldwin Township?
Nels Christian (N.C.) Hansen was an avid sportsman who enjoyed duck hunting in Sherburne County. While working in a buggy factory in Minneapolis, N.C. purchased forty acres on the east side of Elk Lake in Baldwin Township in 1904. A small two-room house was built and in 1905 the Hansen family: N.C., his wife, Carrie, and children, Raymond and Vivian, moved there from Minneapolis. Mr. Hansen had never found a duck call that satisfied him so he experimented and eventually produced one that worked. This duck call was a success and at the urging of his hunting partners, he patented the duck call and began manufacturing them in a small factory on his farm. The first ones were made by hand in the attic of the farmhouse. N.C. made the machinery to produce the duck calls and installed it in an outbuilding on his farm. Another building was set up for painting the finished duck calls. The wood was a special pine painted two shades of green with a dull finish so the sun would not reflect off them. During the many years the company made duck calls, N.C., his son, Raymond, and son-in-law, Charles Pratt, were the only employees.
N.C.’s original plan was to produce the duck calls for wholesalers but after putting advertisements in sporting magazines such as Sports Afield and Field and Stream people began writing directly to the Hansen’s and many thousands were sold individually to satisfied customers. Retail price of a Broad Bill Duck Call was $1.00 - $1.50. At its busiest years the factory was turning out 15 – 18,000 duck calls a year. The Broad Bill was produced from 1914 until about 1960 when the patent ran out and the competition from cheaply made plastic duck calls became too great. Another contributing factor was a temporary decline in ducks.
(Source: Historically Speaking – Sherburne County Historical Society. Volume 9, No. 1 – Winter 1994. Page 4.)