I’m at the Erie Maritime Museum and I have stopped to spend some time at a new exhibit. It’s not an exhibit about a Navy ship and it’s not an exhibit about any of the big freighters that have been known to visit the city. This exhibit is about a small boat that’s been a family treasure. It’s a rowboat donated to the museum by Gary Larson. The rowboat was built by Gary’s grandfather Henry in 1908.
“It has been rowed by six generations of Larsons,” says Gary. “Great-grandfather, grandfather, father, me, son, and grandson.”
The Larson family is an example of Erie’s love of the water. Gary’s great-grandfather Charles was a ship’s carpenter who sailed around the world seven times. Charles passed on his carpentry skills to his son Henry, who built this rowboat. Henry gave the boat to his son Walter when Walter was thirteen. Walter immediately became a Lake Erie fisherman…