# Lure museum



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Lure museum offers up a slice of Michigan fishing history

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1142000215159450.xml&coll=6

Friday, March 10, 2006 By Howard Meyerson Press Outdoors Editor

DOWAGIAC -- Don Lyons recalls the tawny summer days of youth, of being a kid with no money and time to kill. 

It wasn't unusual to find him and his brother scrounging through the dumpster of Heddon Lure Co., just down the street. The boys always could find a lure body to hang a hook on. There was a nice little lake just a quick bike ride away.

"My brother, Larry, and I were crazy for the outdoors and did what a lot of kids do," said Lyons, 60, the mayor of Dowagiac and also chairman of Lyons Industries here. 

In the dumpster, the boys hoped to find River Runts, a prized lure of the time. Legend had it that it always would catch fish. 

Nothing less would have been appropriate for the company that was started here in 1902 by a former beekeeper named James Heddon. The business grew to be the second-largest employer in town and one of the nation's leading top-water lure manufacturers. 

"Every tackle box had to have a River Runt or it wasn't a tackle box," said Lyons, who developed such a fondness for the company that he and his wife, Joan, bought the factory in 1991 to keep it from being destroyed. 

The Heddon business was sold in 1983 to Pradco, an Arkansas-based hunting- and fishing-gear conglomerate. The factory stood vacant and unattended for years. 

Today, Lyons has more than his share of River Runts. There were 14 variations made. In fact, he has at least one of almost all 410 cataloged lures made by the company. Which says nothing of the Heddon rods, reels, catalogs and gear he has on display at the old factory site. 

While much of the factory is now used by Lyons' plumbing-fixtures business, a 3,000-square-foot corner was converted into the Heddon Museum, a national shrine to the Heddon Lure Co. legacy.

"What we are trying to do here is tell the story of the company," said Joan Lyons, who also is working on a book about it. "It's not about collecting everything Heddon." 

The Lyonses don't advertise or charge for entry to the museum. The price of admission is simply to sign their guest book. Between 400 and 500 people come through their doors each year, according to Joan. They have come from as far away as Japan, specifically to see place. Heddon lures are highly collectible overseas, just as they are here. 

A visit can be an all-day affair or enjoyed in pieces. Anyone who goes will find a fascinating slice of Michigan fishing history. The museum's walls are full of lure displays, the various top-water baits made between 1902 and 1984. Nostalgic photos provide a taste of the early era of lure manufacturing.

Some of the earliest history includes a family legend: that armed with a patent for a bass fishing lure, James Heddon borrowed $1,000 from his oldest son Will to start James Heddon and Son Co. 

The company's first 1902 catalogue contained one lure only, the famous "slopenose," as it is commonly known. Its actual name is: "The Dowagiac Perfect Surface Casting Bait." 

A second lure was added by the end of the year and Heddon's modest efforts soon gained speed. The company's expanding line of bass lures was joined by pike and walleye lures. By 1912 the company added reels. In 1923 it entered the fly-fishing realm. Saltwater lures followed in the 1960's. 

"It's a great place for fathers and grandfathers to take their sons and grandsons," said Bill Sonnett, of Jackson, once a lure collector now a lure historian. "Because anyone 50 or older can remember when Heddon was it. There were Heddon lures, Shakespeare reels, occasionally Pflueger lures and everything else was second rate." 

Sonnett also has fond memories of his own yellow River Runt. It was the favored lure as young angler fishing with his father in Canada. 

"You used to be able to send away for their catalogue," he said. "It was 25 cents, the size of National Geographic and it was dream book for kids. You couldn't wait to get enough money to buy something else from it." 

Those former dream-book lures, at a buck thirty-five, can command a pretty penny in the collectors market today. They may sell for several hundred or several thousand dollars based on condition, the condition of the box and the market.

"I know of Heddon baits that have sold for $50,000," said Sonnett. "Generally speaking, they were made before 1906, were in immaculate condition and were a rare color." 

Joan Lyons said the museum's doors are open to the public and collectors alike. Collectors regularly visit to do research, while others come just to browse. 

The story of Heddon products are told in many forms, including a display of its failures and prototypes. Among the horror stories are the early plastic baits that later turned to mush. Then there are also stories of uncertain product development.

"They asked me about putting a rattle in a Tadpolly (bait)," said Captain Ken Neidlinger, a St. Joseph-based charter captain who was on the Heddon advisory team and field-tested lures for the company in the 1970's. 

"I said: 'I think they (salmon) rely more on sight than noise,' but they were going to do it anyway. They added rattles and changed the name to the ClatterTad." 

Neidlinger said he took the company president out on Lake Michigan with 12 lines trailing, six of which had lures with rattles. The other six had the same lure without. 

"We did it a half dozen times and registered very strike," said Neidlinger. "The final result was fifty-fifty. It didn't matter." 

For Don Lyons, who loves to restore antique cars and trucks, the museum is a work in progress, a world come full circle and an opportunity to keep a fading memory alive. He still recalls when his best newspaper-route customer paid him in fishing tackle instead of money. 

Joan, who he met while attending college at Michigan State University, said she loves to delve into the history of the company and its employees. 

"We both love history and have a sense of community and we see this as too important historically to let die," she said.


----------

