TOPIC: Early Texas Boat Manufacturers?

Here is a question I have not seen elsewhere.

I know when fiberglass boats really started to get popular there were a lot of overnight boat manufacturers that sprung up in Texas, especially between Dallas and Texarkana.

Does any one know where I could find a list of the Texas boat manufacturers that existed in the 1950’s and 1960s?

The US Coast Guard MIC (Manufacturer's Identificaiton Code) database will have any firm that existed in 1973 to present.

Here are some of which I have in a file of Texas boat builders that I created:

Lone Star Boat Mfg. Co., Grand Prairie
Marine Plastics, Inc. (Glass Magic), Ft. Worth
Swank Craft Boats, Three Rivers
TemCraft Boats, Three Rivers
Texas Boat Mfg. Co., Inc. (Texas Maid), Lewisville
Fiberglide Boat Co., New Boston
Multi-Plastics (FiberFlite), Ft. Worth
Yellow Jacket Boat Co., Inc., Denison
Bee Craft Boat Mfg. Co., Paris
Holman Boat Works, Paris
Choctaw Boat Works, Paris
Red Fish Boat Co., Clarksville
Indian Craft, Inc. (Chief Craft, Inc.?), Hugo
Morphew Boat Works, Paris
Texas Boat Works, Paris
Master Molders, Inc. (Kingfisher boats)
Hundley Boat Works, Lake Dallas
Love Corp. (baseball player Mickey Mantle was president)
Whitehouse Plastics Corp., Ft. Worth

Andreas Jordahl Rhude
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I think Power Cat moved from CA to TX in '62 or '63.

Frank

Also I thought Skeeter Boats (Holmes Thurmond) has been in Kilgore,TX since the 1940s. According to their website they produced the first fiberglass bass boat in 1961.

Fisher Boats in Amarillo (sued successfully by Glastron)
Cruiser Craft by Phil Dill in Lewisville
Mister Hundley in Lewisville is still working on wooden Chris Crafts.
Fleetform FT Worth
ARA Boats Ft Worth
Glass Magic FT Worth
Invader Giddings Tx

No way Skeeter was first. Others ahead of them by almost a decade.

Just repeating what they have on their website!

supercharged wrote

According to their website they produced the first fiberglass bass boat in 1961.

Must be a typo, should read "their" first instead of "the" first?

How bout Glastron - Austin, TX?

Yes you are probably correct.

I wonder how many of these companies are still doing business?

Glastron, Skeeter, ?????

Frank:
The plant in Texas was opened in 1959 as a second production
plant for Power Cat. In 1962 all production was moved to the
Texas plant. We now know that the company stopped production
in 1974 and then around 1979 to 1985 boats were made again from
some of the molds and sold as Power Cats but none were made
after that time. Unless you count some that are being produced
from the original molds today but not sold as Power Cat boats.
Danny Leger

PC1000 wrote:

I think Power Cat moved from CA to TX in '62 or '63.

Frank

Higgenbotham Boat Company was also from Austin Texas back in those years.. Believe their boat was called the Higgs Craft.
Danny Leger

Thank you Danny. I'm in the process of getting my 14T done (finally).

Frank

MarkS wrote:

supercharged wrote

According to their website they produced the first fiberglass bass boat in 1961.

Must be a typo, should read "their" first instead of "the" first?

How bout Glastron - Austin, TX?

Holmes A. Thurmond built the first bass boat in his garage in Shreveport, La in 1948. It was a marine plywood bass boat like my avatar and it was called Skeeter for it's long pointed nose. In 1960 Thurmond sold out to Stemco Marine in Longview, Texas and they produced the first fiberglass bass boat in 1961, they later produced produced a round nose boat called Skeeter Hawk and a Skeeter Wrangler.
Later in the seventy's or so, Stemco Marine sold out to Skeeter Boat co in Kilgore, Texas where they are still making some of the best bass and bay boats around. My avatar is a pic of the old wood Skeeter sitting on Skeeter Bat Co. showroom floor in Kilgore, Texas
Skeeter first fiberglass boat pic is below:

Ranger bass boats came later than 1961 or so.

In case anyone was wondering about the first bass boat by Holmes Thurmond, I have a copy of his patent/drawings. Partial pic below of the patent, he built his wood Skeeter in 1948, filed for patent in 1949, and patent was issued in 1950.

supercharged; all,

Some of the other "small and independent" boatbuilders of 1950-70 TX included:
1. LINCO PLastics, Linden
2. Pleasant Fabrication,Mt Pleasant
3. Rebel-Aire Boats, Lone Star and Daingerfield
4. Texas Fast Designs, Pittsburg (Pittsburg is my hometown.)
5. Hurricane Plastics Inc, Houston
6. Garcia and Hernandez Boatbuilders, Galveston
7. LongLine Boats,Inc, Waco & Bell County
8. Pacesetter Boats Inc, Waco
9. BearBuilt Plastics, Waco
10.Rockwall Custom Designs, Rockwall County
11.Cherokee-Maid Custom Boats, Talco
12.Walker Custom Fabrication, Boliver (Galveston County)
13.F. Julian Weider Designs, Corpus Christi
14.Socia Custom Cabinets and Marine Fabricators, Harris County
15.Clarksville Plastics Inc, Clarksville
16.Mer-Made Boats of Texas, Athens
17.Langley Tank Fabrication Inc, Weslaco
18.Genuine Plywood Designs, Nacadoches County
19.Bexar County Boatbuilding, San Antonio
20.PLA-MATE Inc, James Bowie
21.Paul Pruitt Inc, Naples & Omaha

NOTE: I am a "fan of" the "little guys" in the TX boatbuilding business & I have a list of more than 60 such companies.
(I'm not at home today but those are the "small & independent boatbuilders" that I can remember "off the top of my head".) - Unfortunately, SEVERAL of those boatbuilders "went belly up" after building a FEW, ONE or in at least 2 cases NO boats!
(Thinking/Believing/Hoping that you could "get rich in the boatbuilding business" is NOT the same as actually being capable/well-financed enough to actually be a success in any small business! - One talented designer, who I knew when I was a "wet behind the ears HS Harry", spent EVERYTHING that both he & his wife's family had, trying to "get into the boatbuilding business". - BOTH families ended up losing their houses, farms, cars & everything else and Lloyd C______ never completed ANY boats, except his one "prototype", before "closing the doors" forever.. - Years later, he was heard to say: "That boat is the MOST EXPENSIVE SKI-BOAT in Texas. It cost two familes EVERYTHING & me a divorce.")

yours, satx

Hi wood skeeter, I'm certainly no expert - try to learn something every day. I did find this pic in the 1958 Glastron factory brochures section on CGOAMN, very interesting!?

Do not know about the Glastron Skeeter, I do however have the Skeeter spec sheet from 1958-1959 and it says Skeeter on it. I sent glastron an email asking what the heck is going on and waiting on an answer.
See spec sheet below.

Why want it let me post two pics, it has a place for two, but it will only post one pic???

This is the other spec sheet I tried to post with the other spec sheet. If you will click on the pic it will get bigger. Note at the bottom, it says: NO LONGER IN BUSINESS, because in 1960 is when they sold out to Stemco Marine in Longview, Tx who started building the fiberglass Skeeter in 1961.

You will never get an answer from the current Glastron Boat company about their past models. They don't care.

Contact the classic Glastron group. Someone familiar with the history may have an answer.

Boat makers copied each other all the time.

Andreas

If posting directly from your computer you have to post the message with one pic, then hit the "edit" button to add another. Repeat the process for as many pics as you would like. If you use Photobucket or Picasa or an image hosting site, you can post multiple pics at one time.

The Glastron company that was in Austin, TX had a plant fire that destroyed all the records from the past, not sure of when this all occurred. The company has changed owners several times since then. They have responded to some emails inquiring about historical issues, but probably won't be able to be of much help on this. I think they're in Michigan or maybe Minnesota now?

I'm not sure they even called them "bass boats" back then, and I think the original question asked was about fiberglass bass boats. I sure wasn't trying to start anything, didn't mean to offend anyone, I assure you! I just remembered seeing the pic I posted, thought I'd throw the info out there.

I wrote a history article on Glastron for "Classic Boating" magazine. I do not recalll ever uncovering a fire that destroyed records.

When Genmar moved Glastron from Texas to Little Falls, MN in 1991 many of their files/records were transferred. However, once in MN, most of it was thrown into the trash. Not sure why they would have gone to all that expense to move the materials just to dump it.

Glastron is now located in Cadillac, MI.

Andreas

I found this spec sheet TemCraft Boats, from Three Rivers, Tx.

Found another Texas boat pat., this pat for Radchske boat from Ft Worth. On the bottom right hand corner, it has Holmes A Thurmond pat no 159175 June 27, 1950 as a reference. This boat looks a lot like a Skeeter boat.

My apology then for the misinformation Andreas, all. (Guess I should leave the historical data to those who really know / have researched the facts!) After re-reading both History of Glastron articles on CG, there is no mention of any fire that I could find. The records being destroyed (or lost ?) must have been something I read elsewhere, I'd love to read your article sometime.

Great stuff you're posting Wood Skeeter, thanks for sharing!

wood skeeter wrote:

Do not know about the Glastron Skeeter, I do however have the Skeeter spec sheet from 1958-1959 and it says Skeeter on it. I sent glastron an email asking what the heck is going on and waiting on an answer.
See spec sheet below.

The new owners of Glastron sent this email to me today.
You are correct Mr. Bailey. Glastron did in fact manufacture a boat called the Fisherman “Skeeter” in the model year 1959. I have attached a copy of the original brochure for your records.
I am unable to offer you any further information on this simply due to the fact that Glastron has recently been sold, and a new company now owns the Glastron brand. Therefore, due to this recent transition we are limited in the amount of data we can provide.
It may be possible that the “skeeter” name was sold off years ago. However, again we would not have any knowledge of this.
I’m sorry I can’t be more help.

Worth mentioning that Yellow Jacket was Roy Rogers' company.

mtdoragary wrote:

Worth mentioning that Yellow Jacket was Roy Rogers' company.

Roy was just an investor. (Mac) McDerby started and owned the Co

You know you're old when you tell people your brother in law owns a Yellow Jacket boat and the company was partly owned by Roy Rogers and they say, "Roy who?"