Almost 60 years ago, Everett "Sam" Brown and Riley Hess launched what is believed to be the first boat on Pineview Reservoir - a second-hand runabout named Wate-a-Minit.
It was the spring of 1936, Pineview Dam had just been completed to create a freshwater lake in the middle of Ogden Valley, and dues to join the fledgling Ogden Pineview Yacht Club were $1.Today, the club's dues are a bit steeper - $2,200 to join plus annual dues of $350 and the cost of renting or buying a boat slip.
And the Wate-a-Minit no longer plies Pineview's waters. It's on display in the clubhouse, looking plain and small compared to today's powerful craft.
But Brown is still boating on Pineview and still participating in the club's annual boat parade.
He can still recall buying what would become the first boat launched on Pineview. He and Hess were in California on vacation.
When the two men pulled up to their hotel with the Wate-A-Minit in tow, "our wives thought we had lost our minds," Brown said.
Mary Hess Watts said her late husband and Brown "had a dream in their hearts but very little money in their pockets. . . . After looking around and following up on ads in the papers, Riley and Everett found and fell in love with Wate-a-Minit, which was in a sad state."
The boat required a lot of scraping, sanding and caulking that they did in a warehouse when the weather turned cold. "But they had plenty of company with other boat owners working on their boats. . . . We called it the "Spit and Argue Club,"' said Watts.
The work was finally completed in the spring of 1936, a little over a year before the reservoir was dedicated officially. Riley Hess and Brown, too eager to wait, pushed away logs and debris floating along the bank and launched the boat.
"Wate-a-Minit was the first boat floated on Pineview, . . . with many people there to watch the launching," Brown said.
Among the watchers were some Huntsville residents who were concerned the reservoir would bring in outsiders who would be a bad influence on their youth. He said Huntsville refused to work with the club on getting it drinking water, "and said we were crazy to ask."
But the reservoir quickly proved its popularity.
"That first summer, people would wade down the old cement road leading from Huntsville to Eden, which made an ideal launching ramp, and Riley Hess and I hauled them round-trip to the dam and back for 50 cents each," Brown said.
During its early years, the club was heavily into racing. Brown said old Wate-a-Minit won quite a few races in the 25 horsepower runabout class.
"But like all crazy racers, I wanted to go faster." He said he had a master mechanic fiddle with the boat's motor until it would turn up to 6,000 revolutions per minute "if I had the guts to drive it."
Brown said about 150 people paid the initial $1 it cost to join the Ogden Pineview Yacht Club. Today, membership is capped at 130 members, said Dennis Petersen, club vice commodore.