Heartland Classics

Spotlight on . . . . BIG THOM

Written by John Thompson

Seeing over 700 miles of water in eight states, riding for another four thousand miles on its trailer, Big Thom had a great 44th year. As the current crew of Big Thom, Carolynn and I shared those diverse waters with heavily laden tow boats, pleasure craft of every description and some of the friendliest fellow classic boaters anyone could hope to meet. Pushing Big Thom the entire way was its second motor, a 38 year-old, 125 HP, 1969 Mercury 1250.

Big Thom, an 18’ 4” Thompson Super Lancer, started life in 1963 having been built at the Thompson Brothers Boats plant in Peshtigo, Wisconsin and was delivered to its first owners in the Grand Traverse Bay area of Michigan. We bought it in 2002 from her second owner and brought her to Table Rock Lake near Branson West, Missouri. Never a “show boat”, our “user boat” has logged well over two hundred hours of use since; doing a little fishing, pulling skiers, wake boarders and tubers, but mostly cruising. This marine plywood lapstrake Thompson has operated year-round, except for last winter, when we dry-docked her in a neighbor’s shop to allow him to replace the original decks, strengthen, tighten, paint or varnish everything else.

In Late March, Big Thom went back into regular use on the deep, clear waters of Table Rock Lake. In early June, she saw three days of cruising over 60 miles of Table Rock Lake participating in the Heartland Classics Chapter’s Woodies Cruisin’ Weekend that annually attracts between twenty to thirty wood and fiberglass classics.

At the end of June, it was to Grafton, Illinois “Where the rivers meet, and the fun begins” for the Second Annual Grafton Harbor Classic Boat and Outboard Show sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Chapter and the Twin River Antique Motor Club. Grafton is a quaint riverside village and an “antiquers” must see. In between drenching rains (Thankfully, Big Thom was a camper edition with full original canvas and side curtains), we cruised about forty miles on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers in the area where they join just north of St. Louis and met some new fellow classic boaters, all of whom made us welcome.

July found us on northern Arkansas’ Beaver Lake for the First ever Heartland Classics cruising event arranged by Heartland Vice-president, Kyle Jamar. Putting in near Rogers, we did a fun fifty or so miles of cruising on this lightly developed lake under a blistering summer sun. Big Thom’s original canvas top created welcome shade.

In early August we thought we would avoid the summer’s worst heat by traveling north to the Bob Speltz Land of Lakes Chapter’s St. Croix Concours d’ Elegance at Bayport Marina on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River. The picturesque St. Croix divides Wisconsin and Minnesota. Apparently, we brought the heat with us, as they set a record high temperature for one of the days while we there. Again, we learned the value of that top is for more than keeping the rain out.

The Bayport event’s pre-cruise was the Speed Boys Endurance Run; fifty miles from Bayport down the St. Croix to where it flows into the Mississippi and then up the Mississippi through Lock & Dam #2 and on to St. Paul. After the lunch stop at St. Paul, we reversed the course going back down the river, locking through again and then back to Bayport; 100 miles of rivers, locks, and sharing the sometimes narrow channel with tow boats pushing multiple barges. It was a great day on the water and so different for us to see skyscrapers instead of tree covered hills as we pulled into the docks at St. Paul. Then we concluded our northernmost trip of the summer with a cruise up the St. Croix several miles past Stillwater to the marker which denotes the line beyond which power boats are not allowed to travel. We knew no one at the event before we arrived, but again the members of the club went out of their way to include us in all activities, scheduled and unscheduled.

Then in late September, we joined seven other classic wood boats for the Dixieland Chapter’s more than four-hundred mile Biennial Tennessee River Cruise which this year navigated both the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Here we met the roughest and some of our smoothest waters of the summer. Along the rivers we would stay at the more rustic Birdsong Marina (home of a fresh-water pearl farm) and in world-class state park grand lodges; Pickwick Landing and Paris Landing state park lodges in Tennessee and Lake Barclay State Park lodge in Kentucky.

There were memorable water happenings on these two rivers which eventually flow to the sea; although nothing that would prevent us from looking forward to such a trip in the future even though our 18 footer was the shortest boat on the cruise and the only outboard.

On this trip we locked through two locks, cut through the canal that joins Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River) and Lake Barclay (Cumberland River), passed numerous towboats pushing dozens of barges and also enjoyed the towering bluffs of the Cumberland as we neared our take-out point just outside Nashville
It’s amazing how quickly you become a part of the “team” of boat captains and crew members on a trip like this. The cruising was for the most part relaxing (not counting the rough-seas day) and each stop allowed for “tales of the day” to be spun with the rest of the “team” assembled. This trip was a real “memory-maker”. I sure hope they have a spot for Big Thom and its crew in 2009. A tip of our hats to Larry and Jan Hinton who had written in this publication about their favorable experience on a previous Tennessee River Cruise; they gave us the encouragement we needed to make the 2007 trip.

In late October, Big Thom made the trip to the Grand Lake O’ Cherokees in Oklahoma for Heartland’s annual show and the Friday afternoon poker run. With the top up and the side curtains ready, we braved cool temperatures for the poker run which covered several miles of this large lake. For this event we picked up a couple of chapter members from Texas and two of their grandsons who were attending the show. The highlight for me was letting the “grandsons” drive Big Thom on the last leg heading back to docks. Their smiles were from ear to ear. More years ago than I like to think, my reaction was the about same each time I was allowed to pilot my uncle’s 18’ Yellow Thompson on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, a boat much like Big Thom.

Other than a few fairly minor cosmetic touch-ups here and there, Big Thom and the Mercury seemed to have come through their grand adventure no worse for the wear. From the first mile to the last, Carolynn and I had a great time seeing things which are on and off the tourist paths of middle America in our trusty 44 year-old boat. We met classic boaters, young and not so young, all of whom welcomed us as new friends even though we had never met them before we showed up at their events. (I hope we have treated newcomers to our local events with the same openness and spirit of inclusion. I know Carolynn and I will redouble our efforts to do so in the future).

Life doesn’t get much better than seeing new waters behind the wheel of a classic boat while watching other magnificent vintage boats slide by hundreds of miles of diverse shoreline.