The Blowout

Not long after taking over the business, we realized we needed to do something around the end of July or first of August to encourage people to come to the lake and to reward our annual dock customers. So, in 1979 the "Blowouts" began on the first Saturday in August. The first one was pretty primitive. We stacked up some concrete blocks and put a wire rack on the top. I can't remember if we started out with pork steaks (which is what we cooked for many years) or if we did hot dogs the first couple of years. Of course there was beer, and everyone brought a side. Johnna remembers the first year well, as she was pregnant with Jabet.

Food line at one of the early Blowouts.

Left to right: Johnna, me and Joe McMahon with his back to the camera.

Left to right: I can make out,Bob Simms, Tom Cline, Brian Dunsmuir (sitting in blue and white striped shirt in background), me kneeling, Johnna and Norm Robinson in the white shirt walking toward the camera.

Each year the party seemed to get better. We added live music. We started using Chris Geroff's big cooker. A couple times we even brought in the Budweiser beer truck.

Anyone recognize that cowboy standing there? It's Bill Adams.

My mom always loved the Blowout, or as she always called it, the "Bash."

Left to right: me, Elmer Bax and Mom. Don Atchison and Tony Allbright sitting to the right.

The cooks were always volunteers. We had some great ones. No matter how hot it was, they came through. I'm sure I'm missing some, so please excuse my memory and comment if you remember more of them. They included Ernie Bloom, Jim Price, John Luna, Gene Gunkel, Bill Bauer, Nub Rackley, Ted Gutweiler and many more.

From left: Jim Price and John Luna cooking on Chris Geroff's grill.

Gene Gunkel grilling next to one of our early make-shift grills.

Another one of our early grills.

In 2005, we decided to move the party to the water, where it belonged. We simplified the menu - we started doing pulled pork sandwiches, chips and drinks - so that our guests didn't have to worry about bringing a dish and instead just anchor out and enjoy the day.

Our "floating opera."

Just one of the strings of boats you'll see on Blowout day.

Bobbing is what we do best!

This past August we surprised everyone with margaritas. They were a hit.

The Blowout has always been a customer appreciation party for our annual stall customers and their families. Over the years the word has spread, and it has grown a bit to include more folks, and that's okay. The more the merrier. Blowout 2015 is scheduled for August 1st.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan

More on the Seventies and Early Eighties

It would not have been possible for Johnna and me take over the dock had we still owned The Galley. The restaurant had consumed almost everyone's time except mine to operate it. I spent all my time at the dock. Fortunately, prior to us taking over, we sold it to Guy and Penny Resch. (See previous post about the Pontiac Cafe.) Guy and Penny did a great job of running the restaurant, but they only lasted a few years. Guy also joined our construction crew. Guy, Steve Purcell and I worked on several projects during the winters to help make ends meet.

Guy Resch and Ed Kolaks.

The fishing was really good in the late seventies, especially the striped bass (striper) fishing. The first striper record for Pontiac was 23 pounds, 3 ounces and was caught by Ed Kolaks on May 21, 1976. When Ed brought the fish in, I remember telling him that thing must be a record because I had never seen a fish that big before. Sure enough it was.

Ed and his record striper

Before Ed's fish was back from the taxidermist, the record was broken by a fish caught on Norfork. We got the record back a short time later, as on May 5, 1980, the record was broken three times in one night. Don Atchison and Tony Allbright caught one each over 38 pounds and Don landed the big boy that weighed in at 47 pounds, 4 ounces.

Tony and Don with their three record catches.

It wasn't only stripers. Doc Klayman joined the fun on February 26, 1983, with his own record. His was a 6 pound, 12 ounce smallmouth bass.

Doc Klayman

And from the Theodosia area, Bernice Morello weighed in a 5 pound, 5 ounce record white bass on April 15, 1980.

Ralph McNair and Bernice Morello

Of course, the granddaddy of record fish is Marvin Bushong's 13 pound, 14 ounce largemouth bass. That record still stands.

In addition to all the records, there were a lot of really good stringers of fish as well.

Left to right: Unknown, Pat Godwin, Don Atchison and Bob Robbins.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan

The Seventies

The early seventies saw some more expansion to the docks. With our new office dock in place we converted the old office to a shop. Phil Petars had been working in Theodosia for a year or so but came to work at Pontiac around 1970. A Johnson Outboard was the motor to have in those days, but since Theodosia Marina already had them, all Dad could get was Mercury. They had a reputation of running really fast, just not very long. Phil attended Mercury service school, we stocked up on parts, a few motors, and were up and running as a full service Mercury dealership.

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Dad next built a 10 stall dock that was located across the cove from the main dock below the abandoned steps near the old swimming area. The slips were 12 feet wide which we thought would surely house 2 boats......RIGHT!  It later became part of the 400 dock which was destroyed in the big storm of 2013. He also added what we thought at the time was a huge dock.  It had 10 stalls with 16 feet wide slips that we thought would surely house 2 really big boats. Again.....RIGHT! This dock is still being used and is slips 301-320.

Left to right, 200 dock, main office, 100 dock and 300 dock today.

In the mid 70s when Johnna and I arrived, Dad had plans for more expansion. We bought the property directly across highway W from the boat dock road with plans to build a motel and restaurant. Property prices had gone up a bit as the 25 acres Dad bought cost $25,000. I guess Mom was right. He should have bought it when it was $100 per acre a few years before. We also had plans to enlarge the marina. We weren't able to build the motel at this time but we did expand the dock. I drew up the plans and submitted them to the Corps for the dock to be constructed. The new dock had 14 double slips, seven on each side to hold two boats in each slip. They were 14 feet wide and again had plenty of room for 2 boats. Steve Purcell joined our construction crew and he, my brother Dan, and I built the dock which is now called the 100 dock.

100 dock being built in spring, 1976.

Part of our motel plans included building a restaurant. The restaurant in the park was closed at the time and since we weren't going to be building a new one with our motel at that time we made a deal with Clyde Oberlin and bought the Green Trees Cafe. We changed the name to The Galley, hired the best cook in the country, Argie Wilbanks, and we were in business.

The lake level stayed pretty close to conservation pool in 1971 and 1972 only dropping down to about 640 in the winter time and then coming back up to normal pool for the rest of the year. In 1973, however, the lake reached its highest since we bought the dock. It got all the way up to 691 by midyear and remained above normal for most of the summer. In the winter of 1973, it came back up again to a level of about 675 and dropped back to normal and then up again to nearly 680 in the middle of the summer. It was a real roller coaster ride until about mid 1975 when it finally settled down for nearly a whole year. In 1976 Johnna and I bought some land to build a house on. Naturally by now land prices were up again as we paid $2000 per acre for our 8 acres. I enlisted the help of an old retired carpenter in Pontiac named Caskey Norfleet to help me and we took on the building project. It was a similar style house that my brother had built, one and a half stories. My total carpenter experience up to this point was building docks. Caskey taught me how to frame a house. In fact when we got to the second floor he said, "I can't handle going up and down the ladder any more so you're on your own now, Son."  It turned out pretty well. Several years later we sold that house to Tom and Mary Cline.

Our building project on our new house went so well that winter the next year we bought some property and decided to build a spec house on it. Caskey Norfleet had decided to move back to the city so we bought his place...a mobile home with a garage on 40 acres. We sold the mobile home and moved it off the property and began building our house. My brother, Dan, had started working with Jim Barron in the plumbing and electric and heat and air-conditioning business part time. We finished the house in the spring of 1978.

Our spec house, original garage on the left.

Dan really enjoyed the construction business and he did not want to go back to work at the boat dock. So, Johnna and I put together a deal to buy the business and on May 1, 1978 we became the sole owners of Pontiac Boat Dock.

               Written By Cap'n T. Morgan

How We Got Here

In the late sixties my parents decided to buy some land. They along with my Dad's cousin, Larry and Mildred Winkler, purchased 15 acres from Guy Johnson, part of which Matt and Jabet's house sits on, for $1,500. Guy tried to sell them more. My Mom was all for it, but my Dad did not think we needed to be putting money in land. We needed to focus on the dock. Big mistake, huh.

The Winklers built a small cabin on their half, and my parents were going to build a house on their half. The new dock office (now known as the "dive shop") was being built about this same time. Larry Winkler was helping with the construction of the dock and suffered a severe stroke. He was unable to come to the lake any more so my parents bought their cabin. It was a good thing, as in 1970 my brother Dan married his longtime summer sweetheart, Patty Martinek. They moved into our trailer, and my parents and I moved into the cabin (now Matt and Jabet's living room).

Left to right: Me, Laura Martinek (Patty's sister), Dan, unknown and Patty Martinek.

My love for the lake still revolved around skiing. We had bought a different boat by now: a 16' Mark Twain with a 120 HP Mercruiser. I loved that boat. I named it Lizzie Beth after my grandmother, whose maiden name happened to be Caldwell. When I was home from Mizzou, I would sleep on the couch in the cabin. In the summer I spent many nights sleeping in our boat. It had back to back seats that would lay down. That way I could get up when I needed to in the morning to help customers, and my parents didn't know what time I came in at night. My love for the lake was about to change.

In 1969, Sue Ann Luna Jones graduated from high school and started school at Mizzou. She and I became good friends. She was also a lake bum. Her Dad, Mearl, and his cousin, John Luna, owned one of the four houseboats in the cove just around the corner from the boat dock, below Pontiac Lodge. We called them "houseboats," but they were really "boat houses." I think I knew her cousin, Johnna, by then, but Sue Ann actually introduced us in 1970. Johnna started school at Mizzou in the fall of 1971. After a couple wild and exciting years, including a diving trip to Grand Cayman in 1972, we were married on August 4, 1973.

Left to right: John Luna, Erma Luna, Johnna, me, Alice Morgan and Joe Morgan.

After my graduation from college in December 1973, I took a job with Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville as a Civil Engineer. It seemed like every time we could squeeze in a three-day weekend, we were coming home. Over Christmas 1974, we visited an old college buddy, Quentin Moore, in Kansas City. Quentin worked for Burns and McDonnell. He said they were hiring and that I should apply. I did, and they offered me a job (making more money) and to pay my moving expenses, so we were on our way. Our Tennessee neighbors weren't sad to see us go, as we really didn't see eye to eye when it came to college football.

Newspaper clipping Mom saved when we incorporated.

Now that we were living in Kansas City we were even closer to the lake. It seemed like every weekend we were headed home. The lake kept calling, and in 1975 my Dad turned 62 and was thinking about retiring. We decided the city life was not for us, so we left Kansas City and headed home. My brother had built a house by now (now Tom and Dee Glenn's house located behind Matt and Jabet's house), so we moved in the trailer on the hill and began working full time at the dock. Dan's summertime sweetheart from the city did not last long in Pontiac. After a short marriage they were divorced, and on August 4, 1975 he married the real love of his life, Joyce Fry.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan