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The back story is that my father-in-law was born and raised on Pelee Island. My wife grew up there. He ran a scrapping business and folks would bring scrap metal to him. He will be 100 this November. Anyhow, as he got older, the trips to the mainland to scrap the metal became fewer and fewer and eventually stopped all together. But he never told people to stop bringing him scrap metal…
This boat was full of trash and completely rotten. There were two other boats in the scrap pile…one was a Sea Nymph and I forget what the other one was. I knew of Arkansas Traveler and figured the boat was worth saving. So I bought a trailer and hauled the thing home…which is Cleveland Ohio.
As an aside, my wife is a dual US/Canadian citizen…
I brought the thing home in 2023. 2024 saw the thing sand blasted and painted. 2025 the transom (baltic birch) and seats (white oak) were done. 2026 did the trim…quarter-sawn white oak.
After 2 hours at customs…no there is no documentation…yes the boat came from Canada…I got the boat back on Pelee Island.
The motor is a 1952 Johnson QD-12 10HP. I did a mechanical restoration on that motor, and refurbished the pressure tank about 15 years ago. It has been a very strong runner…started on the second pull in the video. Who knows? Maybe that boat was run with that kind of motor in the past…
I guess the boat is about 1950, give or take a year or two. There is one Arkansas Traveler with providence dating to about 1952…my serial number is quite a bit lower.
I wanted to put the boat in as near original configuration as I could…so wood trim and seats. None of the rivets leaked. So if you are going to be on Pelee Island, let me know!