Heddon Museum

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fishbum	Heddon Museum		Lead	[-]
Posts: 243 01/26/2009 10:33	Tags : None Spent the afternoon at the Heddon Museum in Dowgiac, Michigan. I thought you Heddon fans might be interested. It is in the old Heddon factory. The have a very nice collection of Heddon rods, reels lurs and a few tools from the factory. Hours of operation: 6:30 P. M. to 8:30 P. M. Tuesdays 1:30 P. M. to 4:00 P. M. the last sunday of each month. Museum phone 269-782-4068 I have no financial interest here, just passing along some information. fishbum
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Middle Branch		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 575 01/26/2009 14:38	pictures?
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fishbum		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 245 01/26/2009 22:45	Sorry, no pictures. Carried the camera in my pocket all day. Gives me an excuse to go back. fishbum
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john channer		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 700 01/26/2009 22:47	fishbum; Is there anything left there of the old bamboo rod shop? I've always wondered what ever became of the rodmaking equipment, I would love to see the "long bed machine" as Sinclair says they called their bamboo mill. john
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fishbum		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 246 01/26/2009 23:56	The equipment was sold when the factory closed. There are some pictures of the bamboo rod making operation. They havew some small pieces but not much. They said they are always looking for the original equipment. My guess is it probably ended up as scrap metal or if it is still around it is setting in some dark corner of some used equipment dealer so far back in the wearhouse that nobody remembers what it might be. fishbum
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greendrake ll		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1035 01/27/2009 06:52	John ,Fishbum, I believe that I read somewhere(probably here on the forum) that Bernie Hills who was Heddons shop foreman ended up with some of the Heddon equipment.He used it to build rods until he died and then no one seems to know where it went.................Will
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wbinn		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 71 01/27/2009 22:25	Having known Bernard Hills for some time before he passed away I can tell you that Bernard never made cane rods, except from blanks, after he left Heddon. He had quite a bit of Heddon stock, ferrules, seats, even blanks, and he repaired and rebuilt a lot of Heddons in his little shop on the Dowagiac Creek. As for equipment, I don't think the shop items he had (lathe, etc.) were from the Heddon factory. He told me that Heddon had moved the big beveler (or mill or whatever it was called) to northern Wisconsin and at one time had thought about building bamboo rods up there. I can't recall if he told me why there, but my interest in bamboo was in it's infancy then and I didn't ask too many questions. Didn't really appreciate the vast amount of knowledge he had. When I visited him I just enjoyed he and his wife June's presence and fishing his water. He actually got me interested in cane rods by giving me a beat up 7' 3 pc Princess to restore. Man did I butcher that one up. Sure didn't realize what he had given me. I knew one of his proteges in Dowagiac who made some rods from scratch who had gotten the drum sander that Heddon used on nodes. I think he donated it to the museum. Bernard and June were wonderful folks who always welcomed fly fishermen to their place. As an aside, one of the first FFF clubs in the mid-west was named The Benard Hills Fly Fishers. It was started by Dr. Fred Oswalt who adopted the Hills almost like parents. Through Fred a number of famous fishermen visited and fished at Bernards place. Dave Whitlock, Poul Jorgensen, Homer Circle, Joe Brooks, and others visited Bernards little shop. WBINN
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greendrake ll		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1036 01/28/2009 07:23	Winston, Thanks for clearing that up.I don't like to pass on info that is not correct.Just goes to show "you can't believe everything you read" even if you read it here..............Will
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WIHEXROD		#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 174 01/28/2009 16:19	Winston, Was the move to N WI to a town called Ladysmith? Scott
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wbinn		#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 72 01/28/2009 18:57	Scott, I seem to remember Bernard talking about Brule, but it's been a long time ago. Ladysmith isn't terribly close to Brule but I don't think he mentioned Ladysmith. I probably would have remembered that since my wifes family is from the Rice Lake area and not too far from Ladysmith. Winston
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Larry Swearingen		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 392 01/29/2009 09:46	The Heddon Museum owners are Joan and Don Lyons who own the old factory building. They use most of the facility for their business and keep about 2500 sq. feet for the Heddon Museum. Very interesting folks to talk to about Heddon history in the area. There is no entrance fee and no hard sell about donating. I didn't even see the little donation box on the wall when we left. Had to run back inside when Fishbum told me where it was. It was a very interesting few hours to spend on a cold sunny day. Larry Swearingen New Hoosier
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Whitefish Press		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 205 01/29/2009 10:53 Sic transit piscatoria Clark's	Joan and Don are tremendous people who have done great work in preserving Heddon history. They are in the process of documenting just about every aspect of Heddon's vast empire including rods, and when their work comes out it will work as a tremendous supplement to Mike Sinclair's definitive studies on Heddon rods. The only problem I'm having is convincing them to keep each volume under 1000 pages (no joke). -- Dr. Todd
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WIHEXROD		#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 188 03/27/2009 11:02	So where in Northern Wis. was the equipment moved? Chetek maybe? Might be an interesting road trip to investigate. Scott Last Edited By: WIHEXROD 03/27/2009 16:46. Edited 1 time.
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OldCanerods		#13	[url]	[-]
Posts: 8 05/12/2009 18:50	wbinn wrote: Having known Bernard Hills for some time before he passed away I can tell you that Bernard never made cane rods, except from blanks, after he left Heddon. He had quite a bit of Heddon stock, ferrules, seats, even blanks, and he repaired and rebuilt a lot of Heddons in his little shop on the Dowagiac Creek. As for equipment, I don't think the shop items he had (lathe, etc.) were from the Heddon factory. He told me that Heddon had moved the big beveler (or mill or whatever it was called) to northern Wisconsin and at one time had thought about building bamboo rods up there. I can't recall if he told me why there, but my interest in bamboo was in it's infancy then and I didn't ask too many questions. Didn't really appreciate the vast amount of knowledge he had. When I visited him I just enjoyed he and his wife June's presence and fishing his water. He actually got me interested in cane rods by giving me a beat up 7' 3 pc Princess to restore. Man did I butcher that one up. Sure didn't realize what he had given me. I knew one of his proteges in Dowagiac who made some rods from scratch who had gotten the drum sander that Heddon used on nodes. I think he donated it to the museum. Bernard and June were wonderful folks who always welcomed fly fishermen to their place. As an aside, one of the first FFF clubs in the mid-west was named The Benard Hills Fly Fishers. It was started by Dr. Fred Oswalt who adopted the Hills almost like parents. Through Fred a number of famous fishermen visited and fished at Bernards place. Dave Whitlock, Poul Jorgensen, Homer Circle, Joe Brooks, and others visited Bernards little shop. WBINN I believe that there was someone in Mich. that ended up with some or all of the Hill Heddon inventory. I once tried to contact the fellow for some ferrules. Like much of my bamboo rod information, the contact information got lost with a harddrive failure some years ago.
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