Life-like and life-sized, this bird's a real and rare work of local art

Whether you love or hate the Canada goose, you would have to admit that the one pictured above looks like the real thing.

In 1982, John M. Schmauder completed “The Wonder Deek,” as he titled it on the bottom of the platform bearing his carving, a decoy representating a very lifelike Canada goose. The goose is carved out of sugar pine, a wood particularly favored by woodworkers, according Mark Fulford, the current owner of the goose. Securely mounted on a wooden platform, it was carved and painted entirely by hand over many months. The bottom of the platform bears the artist’s signature and the date. Most people, when they first see the goose, think it is taxidermy rather than a wood carving.

Schmauder was born in 1941, the son of John W. and Esther (Schauerman) Schmauder of Odessa. He graduated from Odessa High School in 1959. He lived most of his adult life in East Wenatchee, where he and his wife raised a family, and he worked in retail. Wood carving and stone knapping were his hobbies, and his 1998 obituary stated that he was a gifted wood carver and stone knapper. He died in 1998 after a long illness. He was only 57.

The Canada goose carving was purchased from Schmauder by the late Lloyd Fulford, whose wife Alma is an Odessa Schauerman and thus a relative through Schmauder’s mother. Fulford’s son, Mark Fulford, has been living full time in Odessa for the past year or so, working in his shop to create prototypes and trying to raise capital funding for his Core-A-Door venture. He now has possession of the Canada goose, and although he would rather not part with it, current circumstances dictate that he do so.

To raise needed capital and at the same time benefit Odessa’s FFA students, Fulford has proposed putting the goose up for sale at a price of $25,000. Half of the sale amount will be donated to help defray the cost of an educational trip to Hawaii that is available to students and teachers involved in FFA. The trip will take place this coming July and will include visits to two cattle ranches (Parker Ranch and Kahua Ranch), tours of vanilla, coffee and macadamia nut growing operations, a visit to the Moana Loa Observatory and a tour of Volcano National Park. Odessa and Harrington FFA advisor Erica Whitmore has sent information on the trip package to the parents of all FFA students.

As for the other works of art that John M. Schmauder created during his lifetime, we have no further information on their whereabouts. It is assumed that various family members have them. If anyone in our reading public has any additional information on Schmauder’s art work that they would care to share with The Record, we would be most greatful.

It would be an asset to the town if this work of art could remain in Odessa and be put on display at the school or the museum. Perhaps a consortium of buyers could get together to purchase it and donate it back to the community. Fulford has said that were he not in such dire need of funds himself, he would gladly give it to the school to inspire future artists.

The goose has one small flaw. Indelicate handling at some point in the past resulted in a small portion of the beak breaking off. Fulford, also a gifted woodworker, says he can repair the damage such that no one would see that it had ever been broken, but that will be up to the buyer to decide.