On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7

06-28-2005 Heddon Museum in Dowagiac, MI

After a late breakfast we got our act together and drove south to Dowagiac (Doe-Wah-Jack), home of the National Heddon Museum. The name Dowagiac came from a Potawatomi Indian Word, Ndowagayuk, which loosely translated meant foraging ground, this area having abundantly supplied the need for wild game, fruits, vegetables, grains and medicinal herbs. William Renesten established his carding mill in 1831 on the Dowagiac Creek. Two years later he dammed the creek to create the Upper Colby Mill pond still to be seen at the edge of the city limits. According to legend, James Heddon's first bait, formed to look like a frog, was hastily whittled from a piece of wood, as he stood along the Dowagiac Creek awaiting friends. Much to his surprise when his friends arrived and he tossed his whittled frog into the creek, a bass quickly took the bait. From that accidental beginning, the business of making artificial fishing lures was born.

We had an address for the museum on West Street but we didn't have a local map. We found the Chamber of Commerce in the Railroad Depot (a functioning depot with daily Amtrak service to and from Chicago and Detroit) but there was a sign on the door saying back at 3:00. We walked around downtown but didn't find any antique stores. We saw a coffee shop called Perk n' Beans (I got a kick out of that name!) We finally decided when all else fails, let's eat. So we stopped in Zeke's Food & Spirits on Front Street. Bob had a tuna melt on some great looking marbled rye bread. They have the best looking dark and marbled rye breads in all of the stores and restaurants up here. I had a tuna salad plate that was served with homegrown tomatoes, a chilled apple and a hot blueberry muffin.

By this time it was 2:30 so we tried the Chamber of Commerce again but nobody had returned yet. So we sat in the truck and pulled out our 'spare' laptop, loaded the mapping software and searched for West Street. Unfortunately I had not upgraded the copy of the DeLorme mapping software on the laptop in the truck with a patch that I had downloaded from the Internet quite some time ago. So our 'Search' function would not work and we weren't successful at eyeballing the map to locate it. By the time we fooled around with that it was 3:00 and we went inside the depot one more time. But they lied. No one had returned to the Chamber of Commerce yet. In desperation we crossed the street to ask three people who were hanging around the Fire Station. A gal gave us convoluted directions to West Street and the old Heddon factory. Then she walked us around the side of the fire station and pointed down Main Street and it all made a lot more sense. So we thanked her and were on our way.

We found it with no problem but the sign out front said the museum's hours were 6:00-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays only. They listed a phone number to call for someone to come and unlock the door with a note "Don't hesitate to call." So we called the number and Joan Lyons answered and said she would call her husband and call us back. A few minutes later she called back and said he was 3 to 5 minutes away. Before Bob could snap a picture of the front of the factory building Don Lyons pulled up in his van. He greeted us warmly and led us in to a good sized room that used to house the administrative offices of the Heddon factory. We were bowled over by the huge amount of collectible Heddon items staring at us from every direction. And I do mean 'staring at us'; you should have seen all of those eyes on those lures!

Located in the former Heddon lure factory, the Heddon Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of the Heddon family's many contributions to the fishing tackle industry as well as the city of Dowagiac. James Heddon's Sons Co. was at one time the world's largest manufacturer of fishing tackle. From its inception in 1902 until its departure from Dowagiac in 1984, the company made not only fishing tackle, but also many other items: golf club shafts (which I never knew about), ski poles and violin bows as well as box kites and radio antennae for the military during WWII. The Museum has over 1,200 Heddon lures, 125 reels and 150 Heddon rods on display.

It was clear from the start that the museum is a labor of love for Don. He spent an hour and a half sharing stories of almost every display in the museum. I can't imagine the hours spent organizing and displaying the thousands of items here. His enthusiasm was catching. When we mentioned that we had recently been to the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, he asked if we liked cars. Then he opened a door on the back wall and we stepped into a showroom of his restored cars, including two Stoddards, a Packard, a Plymouth Road Runner, and several Indianapolis 500 race cars from the 1950's to the present. He had fascinating 'before' and 'after' photos. A phenomenal amount of work has gone in to restoring these old beauties.

Back out in the Heddon Museum he showed us his golf club collection. Heddon used the technology from their fiberglass-over-steel fishing rods to design golf clubs. My favorite part of the museum was the 'timeline' displays of every decade. In a huge shadow box he had every lure manufactured during that decade (a few had photos from the catalogue only because no examples have been found of the actual lures.) I loved picking out all of the ones we have fished with over the years; Zara Spooks, Moss Boss, Wounded Minnows (there was a restaurant downtown by that name), and Punkinseeds. I was also fascinated by the paperwork and artwork, and of course the postcards. But what made this collector's museum unique were all of the manufacturing tools and dies from the factory itself.

They had 'paint masks' that were used to put the camouflage spots on the Zara Spooks, and 'stamps' that put the Heddon name and bass logo on the metal lips of the lures. There was a photo of the lady, Cleo, I think, who hand-lettered the Heddon name and model on every rod manufactured here. The same lady's unique handwriting graces every rod that came out of this factory. A photo shows thousand of rods waiting in a room for her signature. Talk about job security...and boredom! Almost all of the detailed labor in the factory was done by women. Some poor ladies had to hand-paint a dot in the center of each eye on all of the hundred's of thousands of lures that were produced here. Our heads were spinning by the time we left. We thanked Don for the extensive tour and sharing so much of his time with us. It was only as we left that he said "Oh, by the way, I'm also the mayor of Dowagiac." I was mortified that we had called him and he came over on a moment's notice and spent so much time with us! This is a lifelong passion for him. He bought the factory, the grounds and the manufacturing memorabilia to save it all from destruction. He is a fascinating man with a wide array of knowledge across a broad variety of specialties. We could have listened to him all day. I don’t know where he finds his energy but I felt like a sloth just standing next to him. I sure am glad we got to meet him in person and get such a personalized tour of his impressive museum.

We filled up with gas ($2.29/gallon) on the way out of town and bought the Detroit News. We were home in 30 minutes. It never did rain except for a few sprinkles after this morning's shower but the mosquitoes are out in force so we nixed the idea of walking to the pond to fish. We read the paper, had a snack and watched a House re-run. I'm working on my journal late so I don't forget all of the stuff crammed into my head at the museum today.