The Dive Shop

Back in the early sixties when my family first took over the dock, my brother Dan and I both learned to scuba dive. The closest and about the only place to get tanks filled was at Theodosia Boat Dock (they were just a boat dock then, too). We were about their only customers so they sold their compressor and air bank to us. We started handling U.S. Diver equipment. It was pretty much state-of-the-art at the time.

Our old dive manual and equipment service manual.

We had to replace our original compressor sometime in the seventies and then again in the eighties. Then had to do a major overhaul on that one later in the eighties. The dive shop was NOT a high profit center. When the 1969 office (now known as "the dive shop") was replaced in 1986, I was approached by Jim Turk to set up a "real" dive shop in the old office building. He offered lessons, sold and serviced gear, and filled tanks. Many of our current customers, including my wife, Johnna, and Dave Schlicht, got certified by Jim.

As you can see from the card, Dave also became an instructor.

After a few years Jim gave up the business. We ran it as a dive shop ourselves for a short time until we were approached by Cliff Mashburn, another dive instructor, who came in and ran it as a full-service dive shop for a few years. Jabet and Caldwell took their first dive lessons under Cliff and earned their open water certifications as young teens.

Cliff Mashburn's dive shop sign.

Next was Amy Bean and Randy Graham. Amy was running a shop in Lebanon called Blue Water Divers, and Randy was going to run the shop in Pontiac. Amy and Randy's partnership did not last long. Randy took over and opened Pontiac Dive Service in our building. Randy did a great job. He moved a houseboat here and lived on it all summer while he ran the dive shop. He was open daily, offered lessons, dive trips, sales and service and had an air station.

Randy's old houseboat, Parrothead. It's mine now, and that's another story for another time. :)

Randy could teach advanced open water diving, deep diving, and other classes all the way up through Dive Master. Caldwell and Randy hit it off, and Caldwell took all the classes Randy offered and became a Dive Master. Matt and Jabet took their advanced open water class through Randy. Unfortunately, Randy gave it up after a few years, too. We have since gone back into the airfill business, and we have a few scuba accessories for sale. No lessons or equipment rental at this time. Below is a picture of our current compressor. I suppose this is our fourth or fifth, and hopefully it will last a long time.

Our current compressor.

As for the Dive Shop building? It sustained some damage in the storm of August 2013. I wanted to tear it down - or give it away - but Jabet insisted we keep it. We now use it for storage and for our summer Docktail Hours. Join us for our first Docktail Hour on Saturday, June 6.

Written By Cap'n T. Morgan

The First Houseboats

We had great success with our first houseboat, so in 1985 we purchased a second "Boatel." Many of our customers were really interested in renting houseboats, but they wanted bigger boats, air-conditioning and more amenities. I started looking into a company called Great American Houseboat Company. It sounded too good to be true. Sure enough it was. The company, Master Fabricators, was building the boats in Arkansas, selling them to investors in California, then leasing them to dock operators like me to rent for them. The company went out of business, and I lost my deposit. The boat was sitting at the factory in Arkansas. The factory was also left holding the bag so I made a deal with them to buy the boat anyway. It was a fifty-footer.

Boatel left, Master Fab right.

1985 was quite a year in Pontiac. Some of you will recall that was the year the FBI and the ATF raided the CSA camp just across the state line in Arkansas. Johnna and I drove in one evening pulling a Champion bass boat, and there was a roadblock set up at the junction of Highway W and Highway 5. I thought I would just wave at them and drive on through, but I did not see anybody I recognized in the group. They told us if we had anywhere else we could go until the standoff was over that we should go there. So, we took the new houseboat out and spent the night out on the lake. We could hear the plane watching the activities at the CSA camp flying overhead all night. Click here for more details on the CSA (Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord).

After our first year with the Master Fab, I was at another boat show and I saw my first Sumerset Houseboat. It was a sixty-footer. I met with the owner of the company, Jim Sharpe, and he offered me a really good price on a rental. Mike MacPherson was with First Home Savings and Loan at the time. (Looking back, I think he was way too easy too borrow money from.) Shortly after that, our new Sumerset arrived for the 1986 season.

The first Sumerset.

Everyone wanted the bigger, nicer boats that accommodated more people. So, we sold our two Boatels and in 1987 bought our second Sumerset. One of our original Boatels is privately owned (see below) and is still at the dock today.

The Lynda Sue.

Written By Cap'n T Morgan

The Champion Dealership

After the first Champion tournament, I had a chance to sell another boat. I talked to John Storie again and this time he said: "I guess we need to set you up as a dealer if we are going to keep having the tournament there." So, in 1985 we became a Champion dealer. Boy was it fun handling those shiny new boats and motors and rigging them up. We didn't have a shop back then, so we used a hoist in my father-in-law John Luna's garage to hang the motors. We even made a hoist for the back of my pickup.

Norman and I rigged most of the first boats, but he soon became the only rigger. When I first met Norman, I wasn't sure he knew which way to turn a wrench. Next thing I knew I was turning him loose with power tools, and he was drilling holes in expensive boats. We needed a mechanic to help set up and service the boats, but Phil Petars, our mechanic at the time, didn't want any part of these high-powered rigs, so I ran an ad in the paper. I requested the responses be mailed so I could screen the applicants before meeting or talking to them. But then one day I got a call, and the guy on the other end asked if I was the one looking for a mechanic. I said I was, so we set up an interview. I didn't have to think about it long after I met him. And that's when I hired Dave Schlicht.

Dave Schlicht, the best mechanic I know.

As our sales grew, we built a shop on the hill by my mom's house, and our new business became "Pontiac Cove Marine Sales."

A couple of new Champions outside our shop (what we call "the barn" now). The sign posts are still there today.

Seeing the picture of the boats above reminds me of a story about their design. My old buddy, Quentin Moore, bought a Champion from me. Quentin was a civil engineer, and after taking delivery he called to tell me the boats weren't symmetrical. I asked him how he knew. He said he had bought a special set of numbers for the side of the boat and was going to put them at the exact same place on either side of his boat in the "arrow." Well the arrows did not match. I didn't believe him at first, but sure enough, he was right. I called Champion, and they weren't surprised. They told me that each hull mold only fit certain top molds. They concentrated on how the boats handled and let a few other details go. That was changed later as all the molds were redesigned so any top would fit any hull, and then everything was symmetrical.

The pink stripe on the boat pictured above is called the "arrow."

The boat and motor business was really fun. It was very exciting back in those days to sell something worth $15,000 and to be entrusted to custom rig it for each customer. We really wanted to get out and market our new product, but the venues for showcasing our custom rigs were few and far between. Norman and I worked the boat show at the fairgrounds in Mountain Home. One year they had a couple of Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders there, and of course, we had to have our picture taken with them.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan

Clarence Shockey: Another Past Guide

Clarence Shockey started guiding on Bull Shoals Lake as soon as it filled up. He knew where every creek came in, where every drop-off was and all the honey holes without using a GPS. That's because he walked the riverbanks and fished it before there was a lake. In fact, one of his favorite things to do was noodle for catfish. In case you don't know, noodling is where you swim down and look for a catfish hole under a ledge or a stump and reach in and try to stick your hand in the fish's mouth and then drag him out of the hole. Clarence was said to have been able to hold his breath for upwards of four minutes. In doing a little research on the sport I'm sure Clarence must have been doing it in Arkansas as noodling has been illegal in Missouri since 1919.

Left: Flo Haege (I think) and Clarence, 1970.

Clarence loved top-water fishing. According to his son, Joe Shockey, Clarence's favorite baits included the frog colored Lucky 13 and the Baby Zara Spook. But, when fishing got a little tougher, he would go to the creek and catch some big slick minnows and use those for bait. Joe said he caught his best fish that way.

Clarence on right, 1970. (Not sure who is with him.)

Clarence liked to fish in Cowpen. In fact, some of his favorite spots were from Cowpen on up the White River to Music Creek. Those Music Creek trips had to be special and well-planned back in those days, as you didn't just run up there in your 10 HP Johnson for a few minutes of fishing. If you went that far, you'd take your lunch and spend the whole day.

Clarence, left, and again, not sure of the others.

One of Clarence's fishing buddies was Uncle Johnny Harlin. He had a 15' Lonestar boat and 7 1/2 HP Johnson. Joe told me that Johnny traded for a 20 HP and that Clarence told him the first time he saw him come around the corner with that boat he could not believe how fast he was going. It was one of the fastest on the lake at the time at nearly 20 miles per hour.

Clarence with Irene and Blackie Kutilek.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan

More pictures...

After bringing the big rental tube "Weenie" back to life in pictures, Norman Eubank dug through his old pics and found a few more and shared them with us. Pretty hilarious!

Norman and his friends getting ready to take off. Norman is the end, far left in this picture.

All four still hanging on and doing great.

Look just left of the tube and you'll see the first guy going in the water.

Second one bites the dust.

And the last two hit the water.

No more passengers!

Proof of Norman standing on his head on the Surfjet.


Written By Cap'n T. Morgan

More photos from the Champion Tournaments, etc.

Linda Dunsmuir shared some pictures with me after I published the post about the Champion tournaments. Here they are. Enjoy.

Early morning, just before takeoff.
All the red, green and white lights looked like a giant Christmas tree.

A little later and a little closer to the action.

A little later again, with several boats already out.

A high water shot back in the early eighties.
The big tree on the second road (far right) was still standing.

Just Jackie's was "The Galley Restaurant" in this photo, and the fuel tanks were still in their old spot.

One of our many "rental items" over the years.
While this was a rental item at Pontiac Cove, a water patrol once stopped and told me that there were many pending lawsuits on Lake of the Ozarks that involved injuries from riding one of these things. He strongly suggested I sell it before it happened here. So I did.

Back in 1980, a distraught young woman and her very young son showed up at the dock. She told me she was out of gas and had no money, and I'm not sure she knew where she was. She asked if I would give her $5 worth of gas and promised to bring the money back later. She even offered to leave her son, Scott, as collateral. I had done this for someone once before, and I am pretty sure I never saw the guy again. But, I wasn't sure what I would do with them otherwise, so I took a chance on her. Well, she came back with the $5 and has been a friend and PCM customer ever since. In fact, after almost 35 years calling Linda my friend, my grandchildren, Lola and Finn Henry, now call her "Nanny." :)

Brian and Serena Dunsmuir (Linda's husband and daughter) in the boat that Linda and Scott first showed up in.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan

The Champion Tournaments

Not long after the Gutweiler boat deal, John called me and wanted to start a Champion owners tournament, and he wanted to run it out of Pontiac. I was all for it! Thus the First Annual Champion Bass Tournament was held in October of 1984. What an incredible event! The entry was very simple: If you owned a Champion bass boat you could enter, and there was no fee.

An early morning take-off.

One of the first tournament weigh-ins.

There were 205 boats in the first tournament, and the planning had only begun earlier that summer. Over the next few years the tournament grew to a record-breaking tournament with 816 boats in 1991. The planning for the next year's event would begin immediately after the current one ended. We would have a meeting with Champion to discuss how the tournament went and how we could improve it. Champion not only sponsored the greatest tournament, but the customer support was amazing.  Factory representatives from Champion were there to tend to any problems owners had with their boats. Reps from Trailer's, Inc. (now E Z Loader) were there walking around checking trailers and fixing any problems they found. There were also support teams from Mercury Marine, OMC, and all the electronics people. It was a first class event.

Awards ceremony. John Storie, left, and Bill Pace, right, walking off stage.

We, along with the help of Verne Cubbage, raised money to help offset the cost of the banquet that was free for all participants. Verne sold advertising specialties and printing. The tournament was much larger than our small resort area could handle. so we reached out to surrounding areas for support. We sold ads around a map of the lake to resorts and restaurants and marinas so the participants could see where they would be staying in relation to where the tournament was held.

Verne Cubbage's tournament map in 1991.

In order to make as many boat slips available as possible, we would ask our annual stall customers, primarily pontoon owners, if they would allow us to pull their boats out for the tournament in exchange for a free winterization. We also built a special weigh-in platform that would allow the boats to swing by and weigh their fish without having to leave the water. Our crew would spend a solid two weeks leading up to the tournament getting ready and then another two weeks after putting things back to normal.

One of the earlier weigh-ins.

Our local fishermen did quite well. Doc Klayman and Gary Arthaud took second place twice. They won boats in the second and third tournaments. Lots of other prizes were taken home by other participants.

The winners of the second annual tournament. Recognize those two guys in the lower right corner?
Gary Arthaud, far right front, and Doc Klayman next to him.

Eventually the ownership changed at Champion, and the tournament was broken down into other areas and left Pontiac. We were sorry to see that record breaking event go.

Written by Cap'n T Morgan 

The End of an Era

Anyone who has visited PCM regularly over the years knows Josh. He has been a staple at Pontiac Cove for nearly two decades. An institution, if you will. I often thought he might be here forever. That as long as Pontiac Cove was around, Josh would be around, too.

So, it's with a bit of sadness this morning (even though he irritated the heck out of me sometimes) that I announce he is no longer with the company. He was offered another job, and he decided he was ready for a change. We fully support his decision, and we wish him all the best in his new endeavor. He isn't moving, which means he is still right down the road. And he will likely still do a few side jobs for us in his free time.

Josh started working at PCM as a kid nearly 20 years ago. It was a summer job at first, but over the years his role evolved and grew into a full-time position; in fact, he's the only full-time employee we have besides family. He has a lot of skills and talents, and his dedication and loyalty to our company has been truly admirable. If there was a storm, he was usually one of the first ones here to check things out. If we had a big snow, you could find him on the roof of a dock with a shovel in his hand.

So, as you can imagine, we're now on the hunt for his replacement! The job description is lengthy, so I won't post it all here. It's a jack-of-all-trades kind of position. In short, this person will oversee the maintenance on all the docks, campground and at Lake Harbour Resort. There will be routine duties and maintenance as well as spur-of-the-moment fix-it situations to be handled. Close proximity to Pontiac would be a major plus. If you or someone you know is interested in the job, please call us at 417-679-3676 or 417-989-0688 or email info@pontiaccove.com for more information. The marina isn't open for the season yet, so please do not drive down here without talking to someone first - just in case we aren't around. You can also pick up applications at Ozark County Gas in Gainesville.

Pontiac Cove Marina

I was working the St. Louis Boat Show in February of 1984. While on a break from our booth, I was wandering around looking at the boats and came upon this neat pontoon houseboat called a "Boatel." It was 12 feet wide by 40 feet long, slept six, had a full bath and a kitchen. I convinced Johnna we needed to get in the houseboat rental business, and thus began a new era in rental boats at Pontiac Boat Dock.

One of our first houseboat rentals on its way out for the weekend.

Around that time, Norman said to me: "This is more than a boat dock now... this is a marina." Being a former water patrol, I figured he should know what a marina was. We decided it was time to rename the business. My friend from college, Quentin Moore, was the one who came up with the name "Pontiac Cove Marina." He was also the guy who got me to move to Kansas City from Knoxville, Tenn., which was just another step toward moving back home. It's funny that most of the commercial docks on the lake are called "marinas," but the largest one back then and still today - Bull Shoals Boat Dock - is still a "boat dock." I've always admired the Eastwolds. They never got hung up on their name... they just take care of business.

No longer a boat dock.....we were a marina :)  

We put a 90 HP Mercury outboard on our new houseboat. It was the biggest motor I had ever bought from Mercury, but that was about to change. Ted Gutweiler stopped by the dock one day and said he was ordering a new Champion bass boat with a 150 HP Mercury. I asked Ted if he would let me give him a price on the motor. He agreed. I didn't want to make a lot on the sale, I just wanted a chance to sell a big outboard. Well, since I had known John Storie, the owner of Champion Boats, for many years, I thought he might let me sell Ted the whole rig. John agreed but told me to not tell anyone, as the dealer Ted was talking to, Kinsey Prop and Marine, would not like him doing a "back door deal."  I made the deal with Ted but told him to keep it quiet. A couple days after the deal closed, John Storie called me all put out. Pat Duncan from Kinsey Prop and Marine had called him and was mad because I had cut in on his deal. I asked Ted about it, and he said, "I got such a good deal I just had to tell some people!"

Ted Gutweiler, my first Champion customer. (I could not find a picture of his boat.)

Written by Cap'n T Morgan

A Gain and a Loss

In 1983 after a couple seasons as our water patrol, Norman was going to be transferred to Smithville Lake just outside of Kansas City. It was not exactly what he was hoping for. He came to me and asked for a job. He said, "I'll do anything for little or nothing... just so I don't have to go to Smithville." So, I hired him. Norman was my first full-time employee.

Later that year Dad became very ill. He had been battling a blood disorder for some time and had to have multiple blood transfusions. In September his doctor made arrangements for him to be sent to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He spent the last few weeks of his life there. Mom was there the entire time. Dan and I spent the last three weeks there. At one point an infection in his right hand got so bad they amputated it. He said, "I guess I will have to learn how to eat left-handed." He lost his battle on October 21, 1983, just 10 days before his 70th birthday. Thankfully, before he got sick he was able to enjoy a few years of retirement.

Joe Morgan

I remember one of the few (if not the only) vacation Mom and Dad took.  It was right after Johnna and I had moved home to Pontiac. They took a driving trip out east. While they were gone there was a bad storm, and we had considerable damage to the docks. We all agreed that we could handle it and make the repairs and decided to not tell them so they could enjoy their well-deserved time off.  When they returned home they said they knew something was fishy, as every time they called the dock all of us were there working!

After Mom and Dad retired I spent the first five years as owner/manager trying to convince people they did not need to talk to Joe when they had a problem. They could talk to me. After all, I was in charge now. (Ha.) I was having a hard time getting the respect I thought I deserved. I learned a valuable lesson from Dad. Respect is not something you inherit, can pass down, or can buy. You have to earn it. I think about Dad often... about his work ethic, his good nature, his belief that the customer was always right, and that he knew the difference between right and wrong. He most certainly had my respect. I think he would be pleased if he could see that his granddaughter is in charge now. She probably spent her first five years here trying to convince customers they did not need to talk to me when they had a problem. After all, she is in charge now, and she has most certainly has earned my respect.

Jabet at the 2012 St. Louis Boat & Sport Show

Written by Cap'n T Morgan

Jet Powered

Wet Bikes, Surf Jets and WaveRrunners. We've tried them all. In 1983 we had 26 rental boats and 12 motors, which included a ski boat and one or two pontoons. Jet powered personal watercraft were becoming a rage on the lake so I jumped on the bandwagon. We started with two Wet Bikes. They were the coolest thing to ride. It was like riding a motorcycle on the water. The big problem was that you had to idle all the way out to the no wake buoys, and they were kind of like riding a barrel until you got going fast. Most people would fall off a few times before clearing the no wake zone. And, quite often they would have them flooded with water before they ever took off. But, man, would they rent. And at $10 per hour they paid themselves off in less than two seasons.

After a couple years of wrestling the bikes, we sold them and bought what I thought would be much less maintenance... Surf Jets. Manual start and you could hardly flood them - and they were fun to ride as well.

Norman Eubank was the most skilled on the new Surf Jets. He could stand on his head while riding along. I'm sure I had a picture to prove it, but I think the only one is on the bar at just Jackie's.

One of the biggest issues when renting these toys was whenever we rented two at once, they would invariably run into each other. A classic example... brother Dan and I had been working on a waterline project, and when we finished I said, "I know how we can cool off. Let's take out the Surf Jets and knock the ticks off." Well, I was lying down on one, making a sharp turn. The water was splashing me in the face, and I did not see that Dan's had died and he was trying to start it. When I leveled out and could see it was too late; he was right in front of me. I hit him broadside. When I came up my leg felt like I had broken it. He said he was okay, but the throttle tether was torn off of his, so we climbed on, and I towed him in. On the way in he asked, "What are we doing out here?" I sped on in. He and I both ended up going to the emergency room. He had a concussion, and I just had a bad bruise. We didn't have any ticks on us though. Mom and Dad were sitting at the boat ramp watching us when it happened.

We next tried Wave Runners. They were probably the most successful. Very easy to ride and held up well except when you run into one another.

We get calls all the time from folks looking for JetSki and wave runner rentals. Unfortunately, I don't see any jet powered personal watercraft rentals in our future, as insurance is almost impossible to find. However, I'm guessing the fourth generation will catch us in a weak moment some day soon and we will have one again. But only one.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan

The Breakwater

With the docks turned perpendicular to the shoreline, it was much easier to maintain the docks, but the ones on the outside were left very vulnerable to the wind. We had tried building an uncovered pontoon dock with sheets of steel hanging from the side as a breakwater dock, but the waves were continually causing structural problems with the dock. There were some exotic and very expensive concrete ones going in at Lake of the Ozarks, but we couldn't afford one of those. I contacted the Corps of Engineers, and they sent me some information on a study done by Goodyear on floating tire breakwaters... all pretty much built from salvage materials.

Phil Petars, our mechanic, was like the "King of Salvage" in the area. He started saving scrap tires. Whenever he was by a tire shop and saw a pile of old tires he would pick them up. Quite often they would pay him to haul them off. He piled tires along the driveway into his house until there was no room left. I got some used short pieces of cable from my Springfield connection and a bunch of used cable clamps, and we were in business.

We built the breakwater in 8-foot wide by 30-foot long sections on Phil's big homemade flat bed trailer. Phil,  Dad and I worked all winter weaving together eight rows of tires with 5/8" cable, and by the spring of 1982 we had completed a 300-foot long breakwater!

The remaining floating tire breakwater.

Of course, anything put together with steel cable and placed in the water is not going to last forever. We have had to rebuild the breakwater twice since that original one was built. What a labor intensive project that is. The last time we rebuilt it we used stainless steel cable--hoping that would last longer--but no one told us, including the dock builders, that you can't use galvanized clamps on stainless cable. Those two metals don't do well together when placed in the water. We have since replaced all the bad clamps, and in 2012 we removed a portion of the tire breakwater that was bad and replaced it with the first phase of the future breakwater: a floating steel breakwater dock.

The breakwater dock; aka the "600 dock."

The 600 dock is currently used for nightly dock rentals so as the demand for additional nightly slips increases we will extend the dock to replace more tire sections.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan

The Early Dock Hands

In the beginning we didn't have the money to hire much help, so I worked most of the hours myself. We were open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. in those days. My dad would spell me occasionally. Some of the early dock hands included Dan Schultz, Larry Schultz--or "Fish," as we called him--and the first third-generation Morgan dock employee, Brad, my nephew and Dan's oldest son.

On October 24, 1979, the first addition to our family (and soon-to-be dock hand) came along; Jabet was born. She was named after one of Johnna's sorority sisters at Mizzou, who Johnna still stays in touch with today.

Jabet Lee at age 5 months.

We decided Pontiac Boat Dock needed a logo. We scratched our heads for an idea, and Guy Resch, owner of the Galley at the time, came up with a good one:

Without much help, I found moving the docks to be nearly impossible. With Dad and Dan's help, it would take all day. With no help it would take me several days. I was forced to come up with a better idea. I found a salvage dealer in Springfield that had used elevator cable for sale. One day he called me and said he might have something I would be interested in. He had gotten in a bunch of old window washer scaffold winches. I bought a few and tried them out. I ended up buying all he had for about $25 each. Those winches are still in use and doing a great job on all the wooden docks. I took the older one-sided docks and put them back-to-back and anchored them with 55-gallon drums of concrete and those winches. The dock moving went from taking several days to just a few hours. It was a good thing and good timing, because the lake went as high as 680 in the summer of 1979.

The dock on the far left was made up of two one-sided docks that I put back-to-back. One was the old breakwater dock and the other had been situated across the cove below one of the old sets of abandoned steps. The dock on the far right was also made up of two of the original one-sided docks that used to run along the shore.

One of the many winches used to anchor the docks still today.

On April 8, 1981, Norman Eubank showed up in Pontiac as our new Missouri Water Patrol. Our current water patrol, Mike Cochran, told me he had asked for a little help, so they sent Norman. The reason I remember the date so well was that our second child, Caldwell, was born that day.

Does this guy look old enough to be a water patrol? :)

Timothy Caldwell at age 4 months.

Our lunches at the boat dock were about the best ever back then... for Norman and me, anyway. There was always a big school of crappie hanging around the fish cleaning table, so Norman would take a few minnows and catch what we needed for lunch. Since he was in uniform, I would clean them. We had a "Fry Daddy" behind the counter that we'd use to fry them up for lunch. There's nothing better than very fresh Crappie fried for lunch. Sometimes when it was all gone, we'd look at each other and say, "Yeah, I could eat a couple more." So, we'd repeat the process until we got full or busy. Note to current dock hands: Don't get any ideas. :)

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan