BOATS that Built Us
A reflection of the boats and experiences that made the Walstrom Marine staff passionate members of the boating community. KATE CONLON
Executive Assistant & Marketing Growing up, boating was not only a way of life, it was a necessary form of transportation, bringing my family from the mainland to La Salle Island in the Les Cheneaux Islands and back where my grandparents owned cottages. Most of the Les Cheneaux Islands in the Eastern Upper Peninsula are only accessible by water, which makes the boats of that area just as important as any car. My family very literally bought into the boating industry before I was born when my grandparents acquired E.J. Mertaugh Boat Works in the 80’s from the founding family. Eventually my parents would purchase the business and boating went from a big part of our lives to the center of our world. My siblings and I were fortunate enough to have access to the work boats that were invariably hanging around the docks. Every day at 5:01 (after work of course) we’d be pulling away from the harbor with tubes, wakeboards, and friends in tow ready to make as much as we could out of the sunlight that was left. Fortunate indeed that we were hopping into work boats the equivalent of tanks, I don’t think we
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