JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Following up from my most recent post, here's a couple of shots of Wahweap Marina on 9-22-66, the day of the dedication ceremony for Glen Canyon Dam:
Lake Powell - Photos from the Early Years
- Thread starter JFRCalifornia
- Start date
My grandpa never owned a truck. Always pulled his boat - or his travel trailer - with his Cadillac. No one even questioned it.
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
That's back when all sedans had Big V8 Engines and were made with lots of steel. The curb weight and power made it possible, I remember those days too. Back then it was normal to see a newer high end car towing a camper. Now we have the SUV and sedans are ultra light weight and couldn't tow much.
Question: does anyone know if there was another original location of the Wahweap Marina? I recognize the lower parking lots in this photo as being the ones we used two years ago when the water was this low but I've seen other early photos where the marina appears to be over near state line.
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Mid 80's probably up the Escalante. Sitting on the bow of the boat, oversized life jacket, (the foam ones we all chewed on) Open bow boats are nice and all but there is just something magical about straddling the railings, feet dangling while up on plane. Water splashing in your face etc.. (if you know you know)
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Jan Hertzen
Well-Known Member
Look at all of those cabin cruisers. Wooden planks and caulking. Those were the days.
Squirrel
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Those are the days I gladly try to forget. Every spring I had the pleasure to prep the bottoms (at different times) of a 28' Chris, a 30' Owens and lastly the 32' Chris. All wooden boats with lot and lots of seams to rope and caulk. I'm surprised I have lasted this long sanding the copper based paint off the boats, without any mask. Ah' the good old days. Sq
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Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
Lucky if you ask me. I'd love to own a wooden boat and consider being a steward of such a vessel a labor of love fore sure; It's only yours for a time. You are only the current maintainer in a long line of them. Chris Craft was king, well made, solid chines. Owen's was a plywood boat with wooden planks over it, much cheaper to build but not as many still survive. I just don't have the time for a wooden boat but admire them very much. I know where there is a nice 60's Owen's with twin 327's that can be had cheaply but it needs some work if anyone is interested. I've thought about it but all of my boats right now are ugly aluminum mill finish so I guess that's my answer. Still, wooden boats are cool!
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Good question. That photo you posted is dated 9-19-63, taken by Tad Nichols. That's the earliest photo of Wahweap Marina I've seen, and the only one I've seen when it was under construction. I'll post it again larger so others can study it for clues. I'm also posting another photo, probably from 1965 or so, that shows Wahweap Marina in its early days... perhaps more clues there too...
SkibumUT
Well-Known Member
The first photo is of the Kane Creek pullout access road starting to be submerged (Original photo of Legacy ramp from the 60s). Location is nearish the Stateline ramp, looking west to southwest.
Rainbowbridge
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Yup, that would be nice.....loved stepping off the boat and being there.....but don't we also get a thrill & a feeling of muddy 'accomplishment' of seeing 'her' after the trek?I hope to see it again like this someday before I move on
The hike makes me ponder Art, Katie Lee, & so many other 'trekers'.....and ponder time itself......that RB has stood (pun intended) the test of.
Rainbowbridge
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
what year Caddi?
what year Caddi?
Probably early-seventies. It was sized like a boat. I used to make forts with blankets and pillows in the back seat.
Later on, after upgrading in the early eighties, he was still towing with a Cadillac.
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
When I was a teenager I did some work for an older guy who paid me in trade for a clean low mileage 1972 Chrysler New Yorker, similar vintage to your caddie. It was around 1984 and Man, that thing was huge, I could get 10 other teenagers inside it at once. It had a 440 Wedge engine with a four barrel carb and it was thirsty! I remember it was so big that there was an extra unnecessary two feet between the radiator and the grill, just to make it that much longer. That made it hard to reach into the engine bay and work on it
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Kinda getting off-topic, but I remember physically climbing into those old engine bays to do oil changes, tune-ups, etc. Especially on older trucks.
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
Sorry Bart, sometimes I wander and forget where I am, maybe it's a form of Wayne's Words Dementia?
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KBJ
Active Member
Just to wander a little farther, I remember in junior high school a lady in our carpool had a 56 or so Cadillac and stoped for gas one time. The attended said please lady shut off your car I’m trying to gain on it
Marina Bum
Escalante-Class Member
Just to veer back towards being on topic I think that my teenage experience of driving that Land Yacht around prepared me for parking and operating my houseboat. Being able to competently drive my houseboat allows me to get on the lake and more fully appreciate all the beautiful photos I see in this fine thread on WW.
Lake Powell Gothic: My kids next to the first old Boatel I restored taken in Wahweap Marina Circa 2018.
I'm not sure it qualifies as early years but for me it was as owner operator
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