1957 Larson Thunderhawk Junior Story This boat fell into my life while searching for the missing pieces for my Falls Flyer. A guy from Minnesota that I found on the Antique Outboard club board offered to help me find the missing parts. I sent him some pictures of the Falls Flyer and I also sent him some of a Larson Thunderhawk because I figured he might have a better chance of finding a Thunderhawk, and besides, the Attwood glo-pole bases which I needed for the Flyer, are the same on the Thunderhawk. Got an email a few months later and my friend gave me a link to an auction going on in Crookston, MN. All the ad said was "Old Larson Fiberglass boat with Fins." That got me shaking a little and I emailed the auctioneer to ask for pictures of this mystery Larson. He sent me a couple good pictures of it and it turned out to be a very early 1957 Larson Thunderhawk with the short splash well, just like the boat my Dad bought brand new, only this one was trimmed in red instead of blue. The original Thunderhawk and LARSON stickers were even there! What started as a search for a parts boat ended quickly as I knew this would not be any parts donor boat! The auctioneer agreed to let me place a proxy bid on the boat and I made it a pretty healthy bid at that. I didn't even have to attend the auction and won the boat, the 1956 Evinrude Fastwin 15 and the Balko trailer for $600. The auctioneer was nice enough to drop the boat off a little closer to Moorhead in the little town of Hendrum, MN. "I'll leave the boat in the parking lot across the street from the gas station. Just leave the money with the guy at the gas station" he told me! My Dad and I drove to Hendrum one cold, sunny morning to see what a $600. auction boat looks like. There it was sitting across the street from the gas station in a mud tracked parking lot by an old building. As we got up close, we saw what you can't see on the pictures. Plenty of crazing, fading and wear on this old beauty but it was an honest original boat. Didn't think much about the slow idle my van had as it stopped running as we checked out the boat. Went in the gas station and handed the envelope full of cash to the man behind the counter. Kind of a strange thing to do but we even met the auctioneer's mother at the door who knew who we were. We pointed the van with the crusty finned treasure behind it, south towards Moorhead. About a mile down the road, the van stops running and we pull over. Maybe it was warning us of something earlier in the parking lot when it suddenly stopped running. Opened the hood up to take a look. Everything seemed in place, we had gas in the tank but it wouldn't start. We start out on foot back to the little town and don't get far before a nice guy in a suburban picks us up and takes us into town. There is one mechanic in town who also has a small used car lot with his shop. After selling a car to a woman and a little girl who were in the office, he agrees to take a look at our stalled van. We take one of his used cars after scraping the snow and ice off the windshield and head back to the stalled van. Fuel pump seems to be working, "You got fuel," he said, "Let's check for air." Pop the air intake off the air cleaner and there's our problem. It's filled with paper from the air cleaner with a huge hole in the center. We were done in by a mouse. It started right up once the paper was cleared out of the intake. We now had $620. into the boat. He had to get $20 for his time! The boat cleaned up surprisingly well and the best part was the connection we found through the nephew of the original owner of the boat. The windshield was gone but he was pretty sure that it might still be around and sitting at a nearby lake where the boat was stored. It took months of calls to finally get a response but it was worth it as he not only found the original 1/4 inch plexiglass windshield in great shape, he also found 2 well worn original seat cushions and one nice center rear access panel. From the looks of it, the Thunderhawk had been used as a fishing boat in recent years. The windshield was removed and a piece of angle iron was attached to the front part of the deck for a trolling motor. It had a couple minnow nets in the glove compartment too. Even though the running 1956 Evinrude is a close match to the year of the boat, it does have a Johnson control panel on the dash which seems to point to it having a Johnson outboard originally. Perhaps it had a 1957 Golden Javelin 35. The glo-poles that I'd hoped would show up, never did, but thanks to Cap'n Fishguts, this once proud beauty got to shine again with brand new poles! I never get tired of looking at this boat. Some might tear into it and restore it, but I'm happy with it's originality and plan on leaving it alone and doing only what I have to in getting it usable again. They're only original once! -Barnacle Brad Odin