HOUSE BOATS/CEDAR RIVER
More Stories
Home insurance rates soar as storms wreak more damageFrost likely to hit Eastern Iowa Tuesday morning, with possible freezing conditions laterCurious Iowa: Why does Iowa’s landscape look the way it does today?Molly Donahue, Brandy Zumbach Meisheid vie for Linn County supervisor seat
Curious Iowa: How did Ellis Harbor become a boathouse neighborhood?
Cedar Boat Club’s vision became a reality in 1962
Aug. 26, 2024 5:00 am, Updated: Aug. 26, 2024 8:25 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — A floating neighborhood is docked in Cedar Rapids’ Ellis Harbor. Residents will tell you that a majority of the homes are boathouses, not houseboats.
“We call them boathouses because that’s what ours derived from. A boathouse has a garage in it for a boat,” said Jeff McLaud, Cedar Boat Club member and Ellis Harbor Neighborhood Association member. “Most of them don’t have garages in them anymore … so they’re basically just a non-motorized version of the houseboat.”
How did the buoyant community come to be? That’s what one person asked Curious Iowa, a Gazette series that answers readers’ questions about our state, its people and the culture.
We looked back at the history of Ellis Harbor and spoke with boathouse owners about why folks from Cedar Rapids and beyond spend their summers on the harbor.
How did Ellis Harbor get built?
Preceded by nearly 100 years of recreational and industrial boating, Cedar Rapids had a thriving boating scene in the 1940s. Houseboats had become popular after World War II and those looking for a daylong excursion could rent a boat from lifelong riverman Ed Sheftic.
At that time, boats were docked at the edge of the Cedar River at Ellis Park. But without the protection of a harbor, vessels were subject to damage or, worse, being swept away as the river swelled each year.
In 1948, the Cedar Boat Club was formed with the intention of obtaining land for a harbor. The site the club pined after was admittedly a bit of a fixer upper — it was a 17 1/2-acre mosquito-infested swamp. The land was owned by the Kelty brothers, whose family operated steamships between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo in the 1800s.
In 1953, conversations between the Boat Club and the city kicked off with an offer: the boat club would give $4,000 so the city could buy the land. Ultimately, Boat Club member Stan Tisher negotiated with the Keltys and was able to acquire the land for $1. Tisher turned the land over to the Boat Club, which then deeded it to the city for $1.
Construction started in 1960 and Ellis Harbor opened in 1962.
“It’s been a constant expansion throughout the years since it opened up until probably the mid-80s when they finally got everything expanded to what it looks like now,” McLaud said.
“But other than that, the culture down there has never changed. It’s always been kind of a family atmosphere … some families have been down there since the sixties.”
Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation rents stalls and slips. Ellis Harbor accommodates 136 boathouses, 24 houseboats and 83 slips.
What is Cedar Rapids’ boating history?
The presence of boathouses on the Cedar River can be tracked back to the 1880s, a few decades after Cedar Rapids was incorporated in 1849.
Well known riverman Captain T.G. Isherwood claimed to have built the first steamboat on the Cedar River. In 1858 he debuted “The Blackhawk,” which ran between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo for heavy freight and passenger business.
In 1879, a boat club was formed at Cedar Rapids and among its crew was C.G. Greene and John S. Ely. Both men were on the same Princeton University freshman four-oar crew and were skilled oarsmen. When Princeton took a hiatus from boating in the late 1880s, the Cedar Rapids boat club bought its entire fleet.
A 1929 Gazette article described the boat club as “THE social organization of the town at the time.” But when the club’s boathouse burned to the ground in 1897, the club was not revived.
There was a steady supply of boats on the river thanks to boat builders Henry and John Hesse, who started their business in 1879.
“By 1884, the Hesse brothers had a boat house at 119 N 2nd St,” The History Center curator Tara Templeman told The Gazette. “And that, I believe, is the first one.”
In 1906, Ed Sheftic, whose name is synonymous with the river and boating in Cedar Rapids, started his boat rental business.
“He kept reinvesting all that he had earned back into purchasing different types of boats and making sure that he offered the kinds of excursions that people were interested in over the years.” Templeman said.
What’s life at Ellis Harbor like?
The tradition of enjoying summers at Ellis Harbor has held strong through the decades. Yes, some people do live in boathouses throughout the summer. Think of them as summer homes, fully furnished with chemical toilets inside.Previous
Boaters relax and swim at Seminole Beach on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Sunday, August 25, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Boaters relax and swim at Seminole Beach on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, August 25, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Jeff McLaud pilots his boat past boathouses in Ellis Harbor on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids on Sunday. McLaud’s wife, Deanna, grew up enjoying the harbor, and the couple built their own boathouse there in 1998. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Boaters relax and swim at Seminole Beach on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Sunday, August 25, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Boaters relax and swim at Seminole Beach on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, August 25, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Jeff McLaud pilots his boat past boathouses in Ellis Harbor on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids on Sunday. McLaud’s wife, Deanna, grew up enjoying the harbor, and the couple built their own boathouse there in 1998. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Boaters relax and swim at Seminole Beach on the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Sunday, August 25, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)Next
- 1
- 2
- 3
Boathouse owner Gene Dowie of Cedar Rapids told The Gazette that the harbor is a nice place to hang out for over half the year. Boating season starts at the end of March and goes until November.
“We don’t move around much in the water, it stays pretty tight and we get the enjoyment of the fish and the boats going by,” Dowie said.
He said his biggest concern since buying his boathouse has been with replacing the floats underneath the boathouse, but said the city has made it an easy process.
McLaud’s wife Deanna grew up enjoying the harbor. Her grandfather and father had boathouses and in the 1990s, she bought one so she could share harbor memories with her kids.
“And then we built a new one in 1998. And of course it got destroyed in the flood so we had to rebuilt it in 2009,” McLaud said.
McLaud said that the harbor lost 60 boathouses, exactly half the structures in the harbor at the time, as a result of the 2008 flood.
“They either ended up on the bank or they ended up down at the railroad bridge.” he said.
Another wave of trouble hit the harbor after the flood. On June 27, 2008 the Iowa Department of Natural Resources alerted the City of Cedar Rapids that the community of boathouses had been illegal since 1975. It said state rules that apply to docks prohibit housing shelters with roofs and sides.
“So we had a disagreement with them obviously because those houseboats meet every Coast Guard regulation for a vessel,” McLaud said.
In 2010, then-Governor Chet Culver signed a bill into law that would let the boathouses stay.
“Then the harbor just kind of exploded after that because people came down and just started building like crazy,” McLaud remembered.
Despite the headwinds, the culture at the harbor hasn’t changed. McLaud said it’s like a big family that socializes together and helps each other out.
“There’ll be people from out of town that will come by and they’ll see the area and they think it’s just kinda neat, so what we’ll do is we’ll invite them in, let them take a look around, and answer any questions.” he said.
“We want people to be safe, we want them to have fun and we want them to enjoy the boat houses and we want them to enjoy the harbor.”
Have a question for Curious Iowa?
Tell us what to investigate next.
What are you curious about?
0/280Sign me up for the Newsletter
Ask the Gazette
Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.comCopy article link
Flood 2008, Ellis Park, Boating
Sign up for Curious Iowa
Get weekly answers to Curious Iowan’s questions – along with behind-the-scenes observations from our reporters.
Sign Up
Today’s Trending Stories
- Iowa DNR releases first county-level deer density report | The…By Cami Koons
- Former Rockwell Collins President Kelly Ortberg retires from Raytheon Technologies…John Steppe
- 3 die in wrong-way crash on Highway 20 in Delaware…Emily Andersen
- Latest News
Bailey Cichon
Social video producer, The Gazette
Curious Iowa: Why does Iowa’s landscape look the way it does today?Podcast: Addressing long-term care challenges in Iowa10 Iowa-produced podcasts to listen toCurious Iowa: What does a lobbyist do?Podcast: Gov. Reynolds sheds light on choosing new Lieutenant Governor
Videos
Up Next – RELATED NEWS: Marvel And Sony Reportedly Have A New Strategy For Sharing Spider-man Characters, And We Have To Wonder How It’ll Affect Tom Holland’s Return
close
volume_off
-00:28
sd
closed_captions
fullscreen
Share Your Voice
Your trust matters to us. Share your thoughts or suggest a story here.
Related Stories
Curious Iowa: How were Cedar Rapids’ quadrants established?
Marissa Payne Curious Iowa Jul. 15, 2024 8:48 am
Cedar Rapids plans to shut down quarry across from Ellis Harbor
Marissa Payne Local Government Feb. 21, 2023 5:00 am
Could flood-related electrical damage at Ellis Harbor been avoided?
News Jan. 12, 2022 10:07 am
Curious Iowa
Curious Iowa: Why does Iowa’s landscape look the way it does today?
Bailey Cichon3h ago
Curious Iowa: What does a lobbyist do?
3h ago
Curious Iowa: Why can’t Iowans start the process to amend our state constitution?
Sep. 30, 2024 7:28 am
History
Time Machine: Iowa City’s Kuhl House
Diane Fannon-LangtonOct. 8, 2024 7:59 am
Time Machine: 1964 presidential campaign
Oct. 1, 2024 5:00 am
History Happenings: Fun ways to learn local history
By Jessica and Rob Cline, – The History Center
Sep. 24, 2024 7:57 am
News
N.C. authorities arrest armed man after threats against FEMA workers
By Brianna Sacks, Dan Lamothe, – The Washington Post 13m ago
Edgewood, Ellis traffic changes coming in Cedar Rapids
90m ago
Iowa DNR releases first county-level deer density report
By Cami Koons, – Iowa Capital Dispatch
4h ago
FOLLOW US
The Gazette has been informing Iowans with in-depth local news coverage and insightful analysis for over 140 years. Support our award-winning, independent journalism with a subscription today.
Subscribe now
for unlimited access.
Links
Contact Us
© 2024 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved.
