Red Fish boat co.

[john arndt]

we are looking for info on wooden boats built by the red fish boat co. of clarksville texas. we are trying to come up with a more complete histroy of this company. They made moulded mahagany boats in 1958, and perhaps as early as 1955. Does anyone have any scans of a brochure or flyer or any info from 1955-1957???? thanks John and Brenda

[AndreasJordahlRhude]

Probably a long shot, but thought I'd make a response - 7+ years after your inquiry.

There is some history fo Red Fish Boat Company and brochures at www.fiberglassics.com

Go to the Classic Library area.

Andreas

[NVmomster]

And this is probably a telling to no one who cares anymore, but I am the daughter of H. A. Walters, who with his brother Herman started Red Fish Boat Company in 1953 or 1954 (I was born in 1946 and by the time I was 8 they were at their large permanent site). They started the business by making the wooden boats in a small building which my memory says was like an old auto repair building, or maybe an old auto sales floorroom on the western end of Clarksville, TX on highway 82: those were beautiful wooden boats. I remember how upset I was when they changed to fiberglass boats. I have all the memories from the rapid rise of Red Fish Boat Company to the day the bankruptcy court shut them down. Even that last day was filled with drama at the site of the boat factory--with Kathryn Walters, my mother, after receiving a telephone call from H.A. that the final bankruptcy orde had been issued; Kathryn had the remaining boat inventory transported off the lot immediately to hide at a friend's ranch, who I remember as being Burr Andrews.

[johngsandusky]

The originator of this thread never returned. Still, thank you for adding to the information here. I'm always impressed when some one can provide first hand accounts.

[Sayla]

The originator of this thread never returned. Still, thank you for adding to the information here. I'm always impressed when some one can provide first hand accounts.

Absolutely - boat Hx is much appreciated

[AndreasJordahlRhude]

There are some brochures and history of Red Fish at www.fiberglassics.com in the Glassic Library. Also look at the Iola Molded Products (IMP) section, as this was related to Red Fish.

Andreas

[AndreasJordahlRhude]

Article in the Clarksville newspaper from 06 May 1955 said the firm started recently and was called Red River Manufacturing Company. Located in the Slaton Building on West Main Street. First shipment of boats was 30 April 1955. A fire destroyed their facility on 14 September 1955. They had only moved in a month earlier, to a location on highway 37. Company owners were H.A. Walters, Herman Walters, Joe Russell, and M.K. Russell, Jr.

By January 1956 they were called Red Fish Boat Company. On 03 August 1957 another fire wiped out their warehouse at 200 block of West Main on the square in downtown Clarksville.

In December 1959 the company went public and shares were being sold. They also helped to established Iola Molded Products at Iola, Kansas to make "Red Fish" boats for the northern markets.

On 01 April 1960 Herman Walters was chairman; H.A. Walters was president; John K. Dial was vice president production; Miller Dial was vice president sales; and Carl Walters was also vice president sales.

in August 1960 the Walters brothers formed U.S. Fiberglass Products Co. at Clarksville and Red Fish Boat Co. owned 47.32% of the shares.

Andreas

[NVmomster]

Oh, and by the way, the cessna burned on the runway, not in the hanger. The single engine cessna was in the hanger. Hummmmm.

[NVmomster]

Wow, Andreas!! Good researching on names and dates! I would be glad to help flesh out the players and events if anyone is interested.

You mention two fires. There were others, including the burning of the company's twin engine cessna (they hadboth a single engine and a twin engine at one time). I flew in the twin engine cessna so much I even remember the call letters: cessna twin 1820H (or as the pilot would say over the radio "cessna twin 1820 hotel, over". In the early 1960s, our ranch had the only lit runway between Texarkana and Dallas. I remember the sheriff's office calling one night and asking my father, H.A., to turn on the runway lights, that an aircraft was in trouble and needed to land.

After the cessna burned and a claim was filed, an insurance investigator visited to question the circumstances of the burning. He spent quite a long time at the house that day. This was probably in 1962. Several months later, H. A. was called to Texarkana to meet with either federal or state law enforcement. The investigator had been arrested with some of his associates. He would gain information about wealthy people from insurance investigations and the group would plan and execute robberies throughout the region. They would use back roads to access their "marks", take the money, jewelry, etc., and murder everyone in the home. His group had traveled to our ranch twice to commit the crime, but there were always at least 5 cars at the ranch house (two in the open garage and 3 in front of the house). They were spooked by there being too many people. These 5 cars belonged to H.A. and Kathryn (both Cadillacs), my Buick, my grandmother's Chevrolet (she stayed the nights frequently after my grandfather, M.K.Russell, Sr died), and my boyfriend's Chevrolet (he was out at the ranch frequently). H.A had been bragging about having a built-in safe in the master bathroom where he kept "tens of thousands of dollars and jewelry". The investigator thought it was true. My father's big mouth almost got the whole lot of us murdered!

So anyway, that's just one of the stories.

[AndreasJordahlRhude]

wow.

Andreas

[johngsandusky]

There should be a book, or at least an article, of those stories.

[NVmomster]

I have communicatedfor the last two weeks via email with a woman that has a web site that has Red Fish Boat info. She suggested that I should write a book. I will soon be 66 years old and retiring. I have decided to do it, to write a book of those years,maybe entitled "the years of the red fish".

I had shared with her that the stories of those years and the years after include wealth, movie-star beauty (Kathryn Russell Walters), drugs, insurance fraud, murder; throw in a lifestyle like "Hud" meets "Dallas", and the filming outside of Clarksville, TX on Uncle Joe Edd Russell's ranch of "Home From the Hill" with Robert Mitchum, George Peppard, George Hamilton; I spent summer of 1958 as friend of Liza Minelli (her dad Vincent Minelli was director of movie).

Those Red Fish boats were beautiful and fast. I remember they once had a guarantee that it was impossible to flip over a Red Fish Boat. A purchaser of one of the boats claimed that he had indeed flipped his boat. Uncle Herman spent most of one day at North Lake (where they always tested their boats) trying to flip one. He finally succeeded. They reimbursed the purchase price of that fella's boat and removed the guarantee.

The woman with the website (Cunningham) had a Roy Rogers story where his boat was repaired by the Red Fish Boat workers. And this is true. Roy Rogers had been traveling down the Red River when his boat was damaged. I was very upset that H.A.
didn’t tell me so I could have gone there and met Roy Rogers!

One of the original investors, M.K.Russell, Jr., is still alive and lives in Clarksville. He's my Uncle Mickey. So at some point, I will visit him and get additional fleshing out of the stories for the book. And Joe Edd Russell, my other uncle, was probably the major funding source for the start-up of the boat factory. He owned a life insurance company that started out selling policies to soldiers. He was also a very close friend of Troy Post, son of Wiley Post.

So I will start the telling with a book. If need be, I will find a collaborator. But thanks for those of you who have posted here, helping me realize that this is history of a company that should be documented.

[Kyle Horton]

I was very upset that H.A.
didn’t tell me so I could have gone there and met Roy Rogers!

First off- really interesting story! I'll look forward to the book.

I hope you don't lose too much sleep over not getting to meet Roy. He was my mom's hero and my dad took her to meet him at the Great West Gunshow in LA (now defunct)- class A jerk.

[AndreasJordahlRhude]

Singing cowboy actor Roy Rogers was an investor and officer of Yellow Jacket Boat Co. of Denison, TX.

Andreas

[johngsandusky]

Keep us posted Momster, I'd like to read that book. I believe you have the material and the skill to write it. There are books that can guide your efforts.

[NVmomster]

I will keep you posted. I am on facebook and friends with some of my classmates from Clarksville. One of my facebook friends was my neighbor and we were both "models" for the brochures--we are the little specks waterskiing behind the boats. I am hoping she might still have some pictures, brochures, etc. She still lives in Clarksville. I am going to request that my old classmates or their families send me any of their memories and post pix they might have. Some of them have relatives that worked for the boat factory. I guess opening a facebook group to accumulate this information might be a good start also. And thanks for the suggestion re books to guide me.

[redfishpirates]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! after all those years.....i am john arndt.....we had owned our first fiberglass collector boat a year before when i posted that message.....a 1961 shark hardtop.....sense then we have bought 4 more red fish boats, moved from pratt to nortonville kansas, and have been active on the fiberglassics forum. while doing training at the gm training center in dallas we did a side trip to clarksville where i looked thru all pages of the clarksville newspaper from 1955-1956.....found the articles on the may 1955 start up date of the red river boat company and some others that i had added to the red fish section of their library along with a 1961 red fish brochure that i bought on ebay....what i have really been looking for was the exact date the red fish sharks were built and when they were taken out of production along with any storys, info, scans of brochures, etc that can be found.....i had checed back on this site for several months back in 2003 and then maybe once a year for a while but found no replys so i didn't post any more questions....THIS IS FANTASTIC.....thank you verry much for replying to my post....hopefully the red fish story can finally be complete....thank you john

[AndreasJordahlRhude]

yup, facebook group is a good place to start. www.fiberglassics.com is another excellent resource and place for sharing.

Andreas

[NVmomster]

Thank you Andreas. Your postings, information, and encouragement.

And yes, John, the Red Fish story will be told. You have a 1961 Shark hardtop!! Gives me chills.

[NVmomster]

I created a group on facebook called "Red Fish Boat Classic". I had my first response within 30 minutes from a person that worked on the McCullough Corporation boats (Scott Attwater boats). Any of you who are interested in following the research are welcome to join the facebook group.