Mallards of Leisure
A group of ducks retiring from service at Memphis’ Peabody Hotel has moved to Lynchburg, Tenn.
According to a news release from Jack Daniel’s, Peabody ducks generally retire to the farm where they were raised. But in a recent ceremony, one group walked down red and black carpets following Peabody Duckmaster Anthony Petrina and Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller Jeff Arnett to a new home in a pond just below the distillery’s cave spring. There, the ducks will eat the same grain and drink the same iron-free water used to make Jack Daniel’s whiskey.
Legend has it that the 80-year-old tradition of letting ducks swim in the Peabody fountain is linked to Jack Daniel’s, in a roundabout way. Supposedly, the Peabody general manager left his live duck decoys in the hotel fountain after enjoying a little of the whiskey on a hunting trip.