News

Be sure to pick-up the January-February 2020 issue of Big River Magazine and read the article ‘The Birth of a Museum’. The Red Wing Marine Museum tells the story of the business. Capt. Bob Deck tells the story of the museum. By Capt. Bob Deck

RED WING — Mike Wilson had known about the Red Wing Boat Manufacturing Co. launch in Florida for more than 20 years. He suspected it was the last Red Wing boat in existence, and hoped that someday, he would be able to put it in his Red Wing Marine Museum, but the boat wasn’t for sale. Then, this summer, Wilson’s phone rang. The boat’s owner, Jim Leroy, was on the line. His wife had died last March. He had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He told Wilson that the boat belonged in the Red Wing Marine Museum. “The boat

Any collector interested in finding Red Wing marine products had better be prepared to travel. The company that started in 1903 as the Red Wing Boat Manufacturing Co. built boats and motors that were sold to governments and boating enthusiasts all over the world. The history is recorded in documents on file at the Goodhue County Historical Society and reminiscences available at the Red Wing Marine Museum and on its Website. Boat and motor manufacturing was a likely venture for the growing river town of Red Wing at the turn of the 20th century. A Winona, Minnesota, man, John Trautner,