That right there is one of the original Tall Timber wooden boats – built way back in 1954 (by Herb Brown and/or Russ Hawes we think), and we had fifteen of them once upon a time. They were the battleships of Back Lake, especially at the end of the fishing season when we had to haul them out of the water for storage.

Once they were out of the water, each boat would be scraped, repaired, and painted again for another season of use on the lake. This became quite a project in itself each winter (the shop across the street is where the work was done, and up to four boats were worked on at a time), which led our dad, Tony Caron, to approach a Canadian boat company to produce a fleet of fiberglass boats specifically for us for the 1989 summer season.

Alas, that was the end of the wooden Tall Timber boats cruising Back Lake in search of monster trout … or was it? Several of the battleships that were in better condition were sold off to pave the way for the new fleet. One of these boats was purchased by a former guest (now resident of Pittsburg), who painstakingly maintained the old boat for many years before finally deciding to sell it to make room in his storage barn.

This is where the story gets better. After spending a few days languishing with a “FOR SALE” sign on it, my sister Judy and her fiancee Don happened to be going by and saw the boat, with a $30 price tag on it. It was too good to pass up, and Don has a new project for this summer – get boat #10 seaworthy.

It shouldn’t be too hard – replacing the transom should be all that is needed to make this beauty buoyant again.