Library of Congress Bicentennial Celebration Presentation - Page 21
Legacy in Concrete
legacy of "Fresh Air Dick," at the dedication ceremony. He is shown holding a pair of Janson decoys.
On October 25th, 1996, a group of about 30 people gathered at the Sonoma Creek bridge at the northernmost tip of San Pablo Bay, for a ceremony renaming the bridge in honor of "Fresh Air Dick" Janson (1872-1951) the most famous decoy maker in California history. For more than three decades prior to his death, Janson, a sometime commercial fisherman and ships carpenter, had maintained a squatters establishment within a half mile upstream, and now by State decree, his squatter's rights were not only reaffirmed, but acclaimed.
In a very few cases back east, there have been local decoy carvers who have been honored by having their names attached to some small, barely profitable, museum but this was the first time in the history of the entire artform that any decoy maker had been distinguished by so useful a thing as a bridge. The thundering trucks along Highway 37 made a brief ceremony only half audible, but State Senator Mike Thompson (now a U.S. Congressman, representing a northern California district), spoke for the State and was followed by Dr. Fred Hanson, of Davis, who gave a brief history of Janson. Since this was, after all, mostly a meeting of collectors, a half dozen Janson decoys were brought along to establish some sort of metaphysical connection or perhaps to enhance their future value.