gackle, n.d. – Sometime in the late 1990s, Jay and Gary Haut of Jamestown, N.D., went to a team goose shoot in Bottineau, just south of the Canadian border. Unfortunately, geese hadn't yet started to migrate. The hunt was a bust. But the idea got the brothers thinking. Their family roots were in Gackle, 200 miles south, known for sloughs, potholes and abundant local ducks.
The Haut brothers gathered a couple of other guys, formed a committee and in 2002 they launched Duck Fest, an effort to give their struggling small town an economic boost, and to improve the often tense relationship between hunters and landowners.
"It really helps the businesses in our little community," said Warren Zenker, who's farmed near Gackle since 1986. "I've had land in Duck Fest for the last 15 years, and you build the relationship with the hunters.
"All we ask is that when you come, you ask permission to come on the land, and you show respect. The respect from the out-of-state hunters in particular has been fantastic," he said.
In the inaugural festival, 12 four-man teams competed. The second year, registration was capped at 30 teams, many from Minnesota. That limit still stands. And on the wall at the Gackle American Legion Hall, headquarters of Duck Fest, hangs a list of 33 teams on the waiting list. They'd better not get their hopes up, because teams rarely drop out. The combination of great hunting and a party-like atmosphere breeds loyalty among the participants. The whole event has the feel of a family reunion.
Gackle, population 312, is like many small towns, a shadow of its former self. Half of the buildings on Main Street are closed, leaving little more than a bar, a Tastee Freez, the senior center, and the American Legion Hall. But the area does have loads of ducks, and that's because it has water.
Minnesota farmers are draining their fields of standing water through a process called pattern tiling at ever-higher rates. While that allows them to harvest more crops, it's pushed a lot of waterfowl out of the state. In south-central North Dakota, on the other hand, fields of corn, peas, soybeans and wheat are pockmarked with sloughs too deep to drain — basically a duck's dream habitat, comprised of both food and water.
Every year on the waterfowl opener, dozens of hunters descend on Gackle for Duck Fest, including about two dozen Minnesotans. Among them is Jeff Weaver of Anoka. In 2003, he was invited to be on a team. He loved the experience so much that he came back the next year with a team of his own. This year, his team was comprised of his cousin, Tom Weaver of Anoka, their nephew, Colin Webster of Elk River, and Jim Johnson of Brainerd (and of NHL fame, including a stint with the North Stars).
