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Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum, Alexandria, MN

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Al Benton
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Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum, Alexandria, MN

Post by Al Benton » Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:45 am

The Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum announced the opening of their History of Chris-Craft exhibit. It will open to the public on Tuesday, Aug. 18th at 10:00 am and will reveal surprising connections. More later.

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Mark Christensen
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Post by Mark Christensen » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:51 am

sweeet, so it'll be ready in time for the BSLOL show?

Mark
1961 24' Chris Craft Sportsman - CUA-24-0007C
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Al Benton
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Post by Al Benton » Fri Aug 14, 2009 2:48 pm

Mark,

The museum website www.mnlakesmaritime.org shows the building under construction but today's news release announced the opening to the public will be Aug. 18, 2009. The 5,500 sq. ft. permanent display is a collaborative effort between the sponsor, Alexandria Clinic, the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum and the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club (that's the surprising connection). The CCABC was consulted for historic research, documentation and archive images to be used in the exhibit.

Al

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Post by Wilson Wright » Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:34 am

Al--That is a surprise I don't recall reading or hearing about that one before..
Did the club get a grant for that kind of research and assistance...Great work on the part of the current admistrators if it did.
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Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club

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Al Benton
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Post by Al Benton » Sat Aug 15, 2009 6:52 pm

Wilson,

I saw the announcement and passed it on as a point of interest to the Club. Any reproduction for displays in the museum would be an expense that I would think the sponsor would have purchased in some fashion. Being a collaborative effort I'm sure Bill Basler has the details and will share them with all of us eventually.

Between the Classic Boat Encyclopedia (Wiki) and the Archive all of the Chris-Craft history is available so it's possible that any member could have done the research for the museum but it is likely that Bill did that part as a service.

Al

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Bill Basler
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Post by Bill Basler » Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:15 am

Al, Mark Wilson, and all...the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum project is one that I am very close to. The Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club was contacted about a year ago to collaborate on a new exhibit for a large addition to the current museum.

While the current museum was focused on Minnesota Lakes boating history, showcasing Larson, fishing history, some of the local fantail launches and so on, the entire new building was to be dedicated to inboard runabouts....mainly Chris-Craft and Gar Wood, with Chris-Craft grabbing better than 80% of the spotlight. Of course it is hard to talk about Chris-Craft history without detailing the intertwined connection with Gar Wood, so the story, of course starts about 1874, continues through the Smith Ryan years, the Gar Wood years, and so on through the early 70s when wooden boat production ceased.

The building itself is pretty striking with an octagonal shape reminiscent of old 8-sided barns. The ceiling soars to three stories with a very large cupola in the center with windows all around. There is room in the building for about 15 runabouts, but keep in mind several runabouts in the collection are large at 24-28 feet.

I handled the research and the writing. Al is right, much of this we had already mapped out prior in the Wiki. My Basler Design Group staffers handled the graphic design, the computer renderings, and an outside firm handled the large inkjet outputs.

This building is sizable. Each wall is about 24-feet in length, and covered with display panels that are 8-feet high and the full 24-feet long. There is nearly 2,000 square feet of graphics alone in the facility. In addition there are overhead, hanging banners, breaking the exhibit into "sections," such as pre war, post war, etc.

I collaborated with Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club member, and Alexandria Minnesota resident, Carl Mammel. Carl is a very generous man, and has contributed countless hours to the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum, and to the wooden boat hobby. Carl is an avid collector, and many of the boats featured in the Museum are from his personal collection. In addition we worked with Museum volunteers Mark Proudfoot and Dwain Scheutte.

The Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club has been recognized at a very high level in this exhibit. We are working on displays now that will be installed in the new space. These displays will speak to the benefits of membership in the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club. We just did a live radio show on Friday, with KXRA radio in Alexandria. In addition to the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club, there were representatives from the museum, and Alexandria Clinic P.A. on the call. Alexandria Clinic P.A. has generously underwritten the cost of the exhibit including the production of all of the display panels.

Below, you will see computer renderings of the exhibit space. Keep in mind these were mockups only, to give the museum staff an idea of what the space would look like. The actual graphic panels are complete, and in the process of being installed. Many thanks go to Club member Bo Zoland from Sweden for providing boat wireframes and textures for the renderings. Bo's company VizualTech Design provided the wireframes for the project at no cost.

I have kept kind of hush about this one until now as we get closer to the opening. Hopefully very soon, we will be able to take some actual photos of the space and cover the exhibit in a future Brass Bell.

Chris-Craft lives on! If you are passing through northern Minnesota, the Alexandria area is beautiful, with lakes at every turn. And the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum has a permanent Chris-Craft exhibit that has few equals. Stop in and take it all in.

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Al Benton
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Post by Al Benton » Sun Aug 16, 2009 10:20 am

Bill,

Thanks for sharing the story behind the story with us. This is definitely a tribute to Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club for their participation in providing the Chris-Craft history that will be permanently displayed in the exhibit.

A big thank you to Bo Zolland for his contribution to the displays. They are going to look great when installation is complete. The renderings of them are fabulous, Bill.

Also a very big thank you to Bill Basler for his participation in this permanent exhibit and for its inclusion of the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club.

The exhibit opens to the public this coming Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 10:00 am. Some of the banners may not be installed yet but if you are in the neighborhood give them a visit.

Al

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Post by Wilson Wright » Sun Aug 16, 2009 4:00 pm

Bill:

Great work on your part ! But gosh ...Why keep it a secret so long ?...Looks like it would have made a great Brass Bell story...Maybe even a two or more part series as the project developed and also a great way to publicly pat the club on the back. I'm sure there are reasons. Any how, another testimonial to the variety of your activity on behalf of the club.
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Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club

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Bill Basler
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Post by Bill Basler » Mon Aug 17, 2009 1:26 am

There will be plenty of upcoming Brass Bell coverage of the exhibit. One reason I kept mum with regards to the Brass Bell, is that the Rudder featured a story about the Museum not too many issues back. Their feature was prior to the new addition, and prior to the announcement of the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club connection, so we will have lots of new things to cover. The other reason, of course, is that it was not really our project to announce. We needed to wait until the Museum was ready, and they could make a big splash via their media contacts. And lastly, the exhibit is not really complete, even as of yet. It is in its final stages, but there is not much to really photograph yet.
Bill Basler

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