A 100-year-old duck-hunting club tucked into the middle of Suisun Bay has hit the market for $1.5 million, offering a rare shot at owning a slice of one of California's last great wetlands. Concord Farms Duck Club sits on Van Sickle Island in Solano County, occupying 400 acres of open space on a minimally developed island where dues-paying hunters have shot waterfowl every fall season for generations.
The listing, which went up in September 2026, was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. According to listing agent John Ward, the property is being put up for sale because membership has been dwindling. Ward said a buyer could keep running the club as-is, or could instead treat the property as a private retreat for wildlife-watching, noting that the land offers striper fishing in addition to duck hunting and that visitors can ride ATVs around the grounds.
The club's centerpiece is a historic 5,000-square-foot clubhouse with 19 bedrooms and three bathrooms, according to the Chronicle's reporting. The property also includes nine hunting blinds, all of which are accessible only by boat. California Outdoor Properties, which is marketing the listing, described acquisitions like this one as exceptionally rare — and separately, the firm's own materials detail additional assets tied to the club, including pre-1914 water rights from Montezuma Slough, seven managed waterfowl ponds, mineral rights, and a dedicated fishing shack, according to California Outdoor Properties.
An Island Governed by Century-Old Water Law
Van Sickle Island itself spans roughly 2,400 acres of managed wetlands split into 22 private parcels, all overseen by Reclamation District 1607, which assesses local landowners to help maintain the levees that ring the island, according to Reclamation District 1607. The district traces its origins to 1914, when rising levee maintenance costs made agricultural farming on the island unprofitable, per the same source. The district notes the importance of the island's wetlands and wildlife.
The island sits within Suisun Marsh, the largest contiguous brackish water marsh on the West Coast of North America, encompassing 116,000 acres of land, bays, and sloughs in Solano County, according to Wikipedia's entry on the marsh, which cites the region as representing more than 10 percent of California's remaining wetland area. That scale comes with strict oversight: the Suisun Marsh Preservation Act, enacted by the state legislature in 1977, established primary and secondary management zones across Solano County wetlands specifically to shield critical wildlife habitat from urban development and industrial encroachment, according to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which identifies the marsh's importance to migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway.
Flood Risk and Ongoing Levee Work
Any prospective buyer inherits real flood exposure. In December 2024, Solano County declared a local emergency after extreme King Tides and 54 mph winds caused a 150-foot levee breach that completely flooded Van Sickle Island, according to the Independent Voice. More recently, Reclamation District 1607 filed a California Environmental Quality Act Notice of Exemption in July 2026 for routine 2026-2027 maintenance of the island's levee system, according to filings on CEQAnet.
The sale also lands amid a broader, decades-long decline in waterfowl hunting nationwide. National duck hunter participation dropped from over 2 million in 1970 to roughly 1 million in recent years, according to Delta Waterfowl.
A Marsh With a History of Legal Trouble
Concord Farms is not the first Suisun Marsh duck club to draw attention for its price tag or its complications. Point Buckler Island has also drawn attention, though the available sources do not establish the details of its listing or subsequent legal history.
Bay Area private-island sales more broadly have drawn outsized interest even when the properties come with steep hurdles. Red Rock Island is another example of a Bay Area private-island sale covered by The Real Deal. For now, Concord Farms Duck Club remains on the market, offering a buyer the choice between keeping a century of hunting tradition alive or reimagining the island retreat entirely.
