Wings of Wonder

Hardcover, 327 pages.

The Remarkable Story of the Cobb Family and the Priceless Decoys They Created on Their Island Paradise.

Click Here to Read the Foreword by Stephen O’Brien Jr.

Featuring more than 200 decoys and hundreds of historical photos, maps and documents Lloyd Newberry traces the fascinating story of the Cobb Family through three generations. It’s a chronicle that historians and folk-art collectors will find both educational and enjoyable.

Nathan Cobb and his family were iconic figures in the maritime and waterfowl gunning history of North America. With an ancestry and gene flow directly back to Plymouth Rock, Nathan’s father was a Cape Cod whaler and shipbuilder. Seeking a warmer climate for the women in his family who were suffering from tuberculosis, Nathan sailed south to homestead on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

With undaunted courage and fiber of steel, he built a home and community on an island that was little more than a sandbar. His life-saving and ship’s salvage business led to many harrowing experiences in stormy seas and freezing temperatures.

Natural resources were bountiful and the Cobb family became involved in the seafood and resort-style entertainment business. They developed farms and a grain mill on the mainland and, incredible as it may seem, built long rambling hotels on this sand spit of an island.

Living in the center of Virginia’s chain of barrier islands, the Cobbs were witness to one of the greatest concentrations of geese, brant, ducks and shorebirds, on the continent. Using that which Mother Nature provided, they developed one of the most outstanding sporting venues in the country, one that would attract guests from far and wide.

For their use in hunting, they crafted their own wooden decoys. Though natural and man-made disasters brought an end to their island paradise, these wonderful and highly coveted replicas of the many species they hunted cemented their fame among historians and folk art collectors for centuries to come.

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Dr. Newberry received his doctorate with a major in zoology and research design from the University of Georgia in 1968.  Raised on a farm in middle Georgia, he developed a love of the outdoors at an early age.  Following his interest in hunting and fishing, he has traveled to 63 countries and provinces, to 26 states, and has written numerous articles and four books chronicling his adventures. 

He has served on many conservation boards, including the Nature Conservancy, the Georgia Conservancy, the Department of Natural Resources Advisory Board, The Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Ducks Unlimited, The Orianne Society, president of Savannah Sport Fishing Club, president of Savannah Science Museum and Leadership Georgia.  Dr. Newberry is a sought-after speaker having made many national and international presentations to groups such as Safari Club International, The Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited and a variety of sporting and conservation organizations.  In 2001 he was given the prestigious title of Professor and Dean Emeritus by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. He is now a home-builder in coastal Georgia and president of Newberry Loans, LLC.  His passions have been developing hunting estates and collecting antique nature art and old duck decoys.  His interest in decoys from the Eastern Shore led him to an indepth study of the Nathan Cobb family, their lives and the wonderful birds they produced.