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| Torkel Gudmund" Tom" Kaarhus moved to Eugene in 1923. Born on a southwestern coastal isle of Norway in 1893 he migrated to Eugene by way of the Mid-West and Alaska. Along the way he developed the skills necessary to make fine furniture and boats. His love of fishing drew him to the river and ultimately to boat building. In fact, as a planer at a Eugene it was he who milled the spruce planks for Veltie Pruitt when Veltie built his first light board and batten boat. In 1935 "Tom" opened his Kaarhus Craft Shop. There he built and sold the square ended style McKenzies. | ||||
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Veltie Pruitt building his first plywood drift boat from a Kaarhus kit in 1938 |
As a craftsman Kaarhus was superb. His joinery skills with Red Cedar and Philippine Mahogany in assembling parts for the McKenzies reduced but never overcame the leakage inherent in board and batten construction. In 1938 Kaarhus was the first to convert to plywood construction, more than doubling his output of drift boats over board and batten. Plywood also had the advantage of making boat modifications for guides easier. Perhaps his greatest contribution was the development of patterned kit boats. I like to think of Tom as the Henry Ford of the drift boat industry because his kits made these unique boats available to the do it yourselfers and nimrods alike. | |||
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When people talk about the original McKenzie River drift boat they are usually referring to the Kaarhus square ender. No one really knows how many boats he built over the course of his career but his granddaughter recalls drifting the Mckenzie with her granddad in the early 1960s and "…it seems like every boat he pointed to he built." The model to the left is the author's re-creation of Tom's earliest plywood square ender. |