Flathead's wooden boat tradition on display

From bark covered canoes to steam powered commercial ships and gasoline-driven tour boats and pleasure craft, wooden boat building has been a tradition on Flathead Lake for centuries.

Some of that tradition was on display in Lakeside last weekend as the Big Sky Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society hosted its annual boat show at The Docks restaurant and Waterside Condos.

Roots of Flathead Wood Boat Building

There is no question that wood boat building was started many hundreds of years ago by the Native Americans who lived around Flathead Lake and fashioned their craft using tree branches for framing and covered them with elk hide.

It is also believed early French Canadian trappers explored the local waters using canoes obtained from the Indians.

Commercial Boat Building

Wooden boats of all sizes and uses have plied the waters of Flathead Lake and the surrounding lakes. And in all cases, were built in towns on and around the shores of Flathead Lake.

From about 1885 to 1917 some 33 large steamboats built on the Lake moved cargo and people from Polson, to numerous drop-off points on the way to the northern terminus of Somers.

During this early period, commercial boat building was flourishing, including the construction of tour boats for the lakes in Glacier National Park.

In 1937 Arthur J. Burch, a bank teller turned boat builder, purchased the early Park tour boats built in1926 by Cap Swanson. In 1945, Swanson joined Art Burch to build more wooden tour boats, many still in operation today, and still owned and operated by the Burch family of Kalispell.

Pleasure Boating

In the 1930's two local Flathead boating enthusiast, Ole Lee and Stan Young started their respective wooden boat building companies, Lee Craft and Stan-Craft.

Lee's Boat Company started in 1938. Ole was in his mid 20's when he built his first boat, a 13-foot wood fishing craft of cedar and plywood that sold for about $125. From 1938 thru the mid 1950's, Ole and his team turned out a variety of wooden boats ranging in size from 13 to 20 feet and built some 3,000 plus wood boats until the 1960's, when the larger boating community's fancy turned to fiberglass construction. The company built several fiberglass models until the Company was sold in 1971.

The Stan-Craft Boat Company was launched in 1933 at Flathead Lake, near Lakeside. Stan-Craft built boats at this location until World War II broke out. During the war years supplies were limited, which forced Stan Young to move to Seattle and work in the boatyards to support his family. In his spare time, he worked on the design of the Stan-Craft boats there, picking up new ideas for his own company. After the war, Stan returned to Flathead Lake and re-started the Stan-Craft Boat Company.

When wooden boat popularity gave way to fiberglass in mid-1960's, Stan-Craft adapted and changed to more modern materials.

By 1981, the slowing economy became so bad that Syd Young, Stan's son who was then heading the company, moved Stan-Craft from Montana to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where he found a larger and better business climate in nearby Spokane.

Today, 75 years later, under the leadership of Syd's son-in-law, Rob Bloem, and daughter Amy, the Stan-Craft is going strong and plays a major role in the production of the modern version of the "Classic Wood Boat."

Keeping up the long tradition of wood boat building in the Flahead Valley, there are still numerous wood boat builders turning out custom-built kayaks, canoes, drift boats and rowing skiffs.