They then proceeded to cover these sections with chicken wire and tried to shape the body of the duck. When that was completed, the duck was covered with a blanket of fiberglass. This blanket had to fit tightly to the chicken wire so the body could keep its shape. Paul Bierie purchased a barrel of fiber-glass which him and George Kruger put the first coat on with a brush and our hands. Ted Larson then joined in –in helping and the three of them put on the next six or seven coats. Some sanding was necessary also. Ted Larson and Paul Bierie hired Archie Larson a commercial sign painter from Albert City to paint the Duck. The Duck was then put to use in many parades. The first to ride in the Duck was George Kruger and Ted Larson’s son Ron. It was pulled with our pick-ups in several parades before it was put up on this sign which sits on the east edge of Mallard. On July 26, 2004, the Mallard Duck was taken down to begin the restoration process. View the slide show of the project.
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The
Mallard Duck was originally started as a parade float for the
Mallard Community Club. They wanted a permanent float that could
be used in parades. Paul Bierie one of the members of the club
said it would be nice to have a Duck and it just materialized
from there. He went to a close friend and school teacher (Industrial
Arts) George Kruger and ask his advice on the project, at that
time they wanted a Duck with offset wheels so it would waddle
when going down the street. Several ideas had come to mind for
building the Duck and finally came up with the idea of getting
a Duck Decoy and cut it into one inch sections with a band saw.
Next we put these pieces on an opaque projector and traced them
on paper (in the Mallard gymnasium) until we got to the size we
wanted. Keeping in mind that the Duck portions would have to be
big enough for a person to ride inside it for moving the beak
and head. Later we built wooden pieces from these drawings that
resembled the sections or “ribs” of the Mallard Duck.
We mounted these sections on a piece of plywood that would be
the bottom of the duck. A door was built in the bottom so that
persons could ride inside the duck while performing in parades.