Life at Lake X in the '60s

**Seven** · 08-07-2007, 02:58 PM

Yes, i found out that Kirchman Corporation is the new owner.

Steve, my moniker isn't from Seinfield

it's only a number that i like very much

So was the whole property fenced in and guarded? Did some competitors tried to sneak in???

M

**Seven** · 08-07-2007, 03:01 PM

By the way, is THIS X-Site?
I can see a few yellow boats, as i read somewhere that these yellow boats are the Mercury racing boats.

**moparbarn** · 08-07-2007, 03:46 PM

hey seeroy, there's those yellow boats again

.
seven-i don't think that's it, too many houses and docks. but i'm really not qualified to say, someone else needs to answer that.

**T2x** · 08-07-2007, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by Seven

By the way, is THIS X-Site?
I can see a few yellow boats, as i read somewhere that these yellow boats are the Mercury racing boats.

That is the new X-Site facility in Panama City we are talking about the old Lake X......in St.Cloud

**Seven** · 08-07-2007, 04:31 PM

Yes T2x, that's what i asked for...if this is the new site

Just to have a comparison to the legend.

**Tom Smyth** · 08-07-2007, 04:44 PM

Was lucky enough to get a tour of the old Lake X site by a buddy who knew the manager there. Was there while they were starting to pack things up. Forget the guys name who walked us around, think it was Bill ?? Had been there 30 plus years.Anyways the story he told me was that Kirchman Corporation actually owned the property since the late 80's and was leasing it to Mercury Marine. He says Mercury opted out of the lease for several reasons, a couple being the lake was too small anymore for the speeds,the need for offshore testing and they looming influx of housing development. He did say that Kirchman planned to patrol the property and NOT sell it, but turn it into a nature preserve. Evidently this Kirchman guy invented the ATM machine and is one of the richest men in the World.

They walked us everywhere on the property,the timing tower, old motel, in the main shop but would not let us near the " outboard shop".
Bill also mentioned the second story of the main building did house one of the largest outboard motor collections in the "world" that was owned by Kirchman. He said no one was allowed up there . I asked anyways and he laughed at us.....

Story as i was told. they also checked us for cameras / phones with cameras at the gate.

Thats the story i was told. Like Ripley says.. Believe it or not.. Smytty

**Tom Smyth** · 08-07-2007, 04:46 PM

I did get to look in the "scrap aluminum pile" and was uttelry amazed at the outboard blocks and at least 6- 7 #6 stern drive housings in there... Ones man junk........

Smytty

**seeroy** · 08-07-2007, 08:24 PM

Tom - At some time after the new building was built at Lake X several of us were tasked with setting up the "Museum" on the 2nd floor. I think there was a huge conference table in the middle. As I remember, we uncrated pretty much one of every outboard and inboard/sterndrive that the company had produced up to that point, plus some race engines and some other rare old outboards to include a Waterman. Additionally, we hung some drone aircraft engines and some chain saws from the ceiling. I bet some of you didn't know that Mr K produced those. It was part of what kept the company going during wartime. Seems that there was also a pair of stacked inline six's. We mounted all of the outboards on Black Khiekhaefer stands. the engines were arranged around the perimeter of the room in ascending order. This may have been in the year that the Dealer/Press conference was held there. That is another story in and of itself. I don't know when all of these relics came to the Lake, but for awhile they had been stored in the warehouse area across the driveway from the old shop. We moved them to the new building and forklifted them up to the 2nd floor. I am truly glad you mentioned the "Museum" as I had completely forgotten about it. Sometimes it takes a little kick in the head to break old memories loose from the grey matter and they then work their way to my fingertips and into this darn computer. Hopefully there are others on this site that can add more info about the "Museum". I'm sure that Jim Hauser can add some and correct some of what I have provided. Thanks for jiggling the grey matter and Best Regards - Steve Sirois

**mbd29** · 08-08-2007, 06:30 AM

Steve: The engines Bruce is talking about are Kirchman's engines. I was at the Lake when he called Don and told them he had just purchased them from a guy up here in Wisconsin. If my memory serves me correctly he was calling from his corperate plane.

The engines you mention are back up in Fond du Lac. They are all in storage waiting for Mercury to build a museum. Some were added when G. G. wanted to complete the collection to include all the outboard race engines we built after the 1250 Stacker, which you mentioned. They included the Twister I, TII, TIIX, 650X, 700X, and 1750XS.

Lee Soda says Hi. He works here in Fond du Lac. Has over 40 years at Mercury. He remembers your times at the Lake.

**T2x** · 08-08-2007, 07:02 AM

When we were setting up the "Rolling THunder" Offshore outboard cat at the Lake, we encountered a "technicality". This was the only offshore race boat to ever use tunnel boat V-6's (2 liter T3's)....complete with SSM 4's. The engines were, of course, all direct drive and had no shifting capability. The rules required that at least one engine had to be capable of forward and reverse. So........ we went upstairs to the museum and swiped a DR (direct reversing) starter motor off of an antique 800 "Dock buster" engine, rewired the ignition to reverse the firing cycle and created the world's only T-3 "Dock buster"....Lord knows it would never have maneuvered the boat worth a damn but it did start. The whole changeover was controlled by a simple switch on the dash.

Part 2...... after two pretty impressive races, the boat was entered at New Orleans with a new throttleman, who shall remain nameless (he owns a major high performance marine steering and hardware company to this day....

)
Anyway on his very first test session he was having trouble planing the boat..... (guess why!)

The more the boat struggled the more throttle he applied......... Eventually it came up and roared along in front of a group of us, all of whom were screaming at him to stop.......for naught.

Finally the "T-3 dockbuster", laboring mightily in opposition to its 3 brothers and lacking any cooling water at all........... began to heat up...... so hot in fact that the plastic cowl, acting like shrinkwrap, molded itself around the powerhead just as it expired.......

A sad end to probably the most underrated project in offshore outboard history..........

T2x

**velox** · 08-08-2007, 09:55 AM

Does anyone have the Lat Lon Numbers for Lake X.
If we can get then everyone can use Googlr Earth to take a look.
I think the aviation charts used to show it.

**transomstand** · 08-08-2007, 11:08 AM

Map coordinates are in this link. The best view can be had from the Windows live local map site, use "bird's eye view" gives you a view from about 1500 ft altitude.
81.116095 lat 28.216874 lon

http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband#mvt=...8.216874&mag=4

Pete