The Hennepin Shooting Club was established in 1887. Letters between the club's president and the landowner of the grounds the club would lease lamented the areas poor hunting conditions in 1886 caused by lack of control on the shooting area and the need for organization and a caretaker. Since the men purposing the club were all successful Chicago businessmen who loved to hunt, money was no problem. The land was leased and a large houseboat built to serve as the clubhouse. The houseboat was moored at the mouth of Brimfield Slough, which emptied into the Illinois River and lead to Hennepin Lake and its watershed. This boat was eventually moved into the town of Hennepin and made into a house that still stands with several additions. The club grounds consisted of the lands that are now known as the Hennepin Drainage District. The club was disbanded in 1914 when Hennepin Lake and its watershed were drained. The club's membership reorganized and formed the Senechwine Gun Club on the opposite side of the Illinois River, which is still in existence as one of the most prestigious duck hunting clubs on the Illinois River. Sibley's identity was so elusive because he stopped hunting in Illinois in 1901 and moved to Colorado, stopping the production of his decoys and taking his hunting rig with him. According to his descendants, George continued to hunt waterfowl using his decoys in Colorado until his death in 1938.
George lived and worked in Chicago prior to this move. It seems that he set up the decoy factory in Whitehall, Michigan around 1899 when he applied for his patent because his cousin had a large lumber mill there. His correspondences mentions going to Whitehall, but most are from the Chicago address of his other's business, a commission merchant house, where George worked. The Sibley decoy Pamphlet described the decoy as being modeled and painted from specimens furnished us by the best taxidermist in Chicago. James Cunningham, Hennepin, the first club caretaker was a great friend of George. In fact when a new caretaker was hired to replace Cunningham, he was advised by George not to contact any of the members if the hunting got really good unless they wrote to him first. Members of the club passed a by-law forbidding this practice after Cunningham was accused of alerting George and not the others of good hunting days. Cunningham produced the Senachwine Skiff, a 16-foot punt boat made of sheet iron that was popular on the Illinois River. He also made duck calls, so, it is likely that he may have helped George design his decoys. George's son recalls watching his father repairing his decoys in the basement workshop of his Colorado home, but never actually making any decoys. We believe that the Sibley decoys were manufactured on a production line like the Mason decoys. The parts were turned on a lathe, hand-finished, assembled and painted. The Sibley Co. produced mallard, canvasback, redhead, bluebill, ringbill, pintail, widgeon, blue-winged and green-winged teal decoys which were shipped by the dozen, six drakes and six hens, for twelve dollars. Flat bell shaped anchors and strings dyed a neutral color were added for fifty cents per dozen. The finely carved heads with quality taxidermist eyes were finished off with bills that could be carved down to realistic proportions because they were made of hardwood, thus creating natural looking decoys. The two-piece bodies appear to have been hollowed out by machine because the cavity was terraced. As mentioned before a strip of strap steel was set into the body cavity. The practice and the mitered bills were the features that George tried to patent. A small leather strap was affixed to the underside of each breast for an anchor line. The paint patterns used on all the Sibley decoys were simple with no wet blending of the paints. The back of the drakes were vermiculated and set of with bold wing patches. The hens' back were crudely feathered with the same wing patches. All of the bottoms were coated with a heavy layer of white lead paint and "PATENT APPLIED FOR 1899" was stamped on them in ink. Some of the decoys were factory stamped with an "L" in the center of a diamond. The reason for this stamp is still unknown. So the Mr. X decoy still retains some of its mysteries.