Johnson, Evinrude and Mercury

As a kid in Klamath, California – many of my summer days were spent sneaking off to the river to go swimming, fishing and if I could find a boat unattended, I’d steal it and take a quick zip up and down the water way. I hadn’t thought about my juvenile delinquent activities in years, until I found some outboard motor advertisements from 1975.

The original Johnson Outboards were made by the Johnson Brothers Motor Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. The company was destroyed by a tornado in March 1913 and relocated to South Bend, Indiana and then Waukegan, Illinois.

Evinrude Outboard Motors was created by Ole Evinrude in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1907. Evinrude was born in Gjøvik, Norway on April 19, 1877; five years later, his family emigrated to the U.S. settling near Cambridge, Wisconsin.

Founded in 1939, Mercury is a division of Brunswick of Lake Forest, Illinois. The company began when engineer Carl Kiekhaefer purchased a small outboard motor company in Cedarburg, Wisconsin with the intention of making magnetic separators for the dairy industry.

First, I never knew of any other brands back in the mid-70’s and secondly, I can’t believe I used to do shit like that.