Historic Wooldridge Pictures

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#151

Post by glen wooldridge »

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Glen wasn’t only a good boatman, he knew how to cook up a tastymess of vittles for his crew! Who wouldn’tlove a river boat trip by day, stakes by the fire by night! That’s real liven for sure! This photo looks to be taken in the summer of 69.
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#152

Post by glen wooldridge »

Glen Sr during his historic running of the Salmon River.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#153

Post by glen wooldridge »

Here at Wooldridge Boats we’ve been putting smiles on peoples faces for over 100 years and counting! Stumbled across this old picture from back in the day.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#154

Post by glen wooldridge »

Glen Sr. was always working on something! This picture is a perfect illustration of that. He developed a stick steering mechanism (pictured in the two boats in the background) that enabled the user to turn lock to lock with only a half turn of the helm! A great advantage on a rapid river! Along with light weight aluminum oars also pictured. Neat stuff!

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#155

Post by glen wooldridge »

My Grandpa at his shop in Grants Pass Oregon sometime in the 1930’s.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#156

Post by glen wooldridge »

Left to right: Fred Hale, Glen Sr. and Reuben Garcia. Garcia Bagged this Black bear and Hale flew in to haul Garcia and his bear back to Grants Pass. It’s in the book THE ROGUE, A RIVER TO RUN, another great story is recounted of Hale (Owner Operator of Grants Pass Air Service) and Glen Wooldridge Sr. (Local Guide and Boat Builder) about the Christmas Eve storm and record breaking flood of the Rogue River. Hale’s plane crash landed into a tree covered hillside in bad weather. Glen ran his boat down the Rogue on Christmas day at flood stage to perform a daring rescue of his stranded friend. Sound like a Fiction thriller? Nope, just a chapter out of THE ROGUE, A RIVER TO RUN, Where this and many adventures like this are there for the reading.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#157

Post by glen wooldridge »

In 1948 a year after doing the unthinkable and taming the mighty Rogue, Glen and his friend Ruell Hawkins turned their sights to another unthinkable the Salmon River of Idaho. Once again he was successful!

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#158

Post by glen wooldridge »

Chow on the bank of the Rogue! What's not to love!

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#159

Post by glen wooldridge »

Got tagged in this cool old picture on our Facebook. “Early 90’s me and my dad hauling 1,000 gallons of gasoline to the Napakiak marine with his 28’ Wooldridgeoat”

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#160

Post by glen wooldridge »

Bob Wooldridge at the helm of this neat landing craft we built and sold up to Galena back in the 1970’s . Powered by a 460ci V8 this 24’ sled was a real workhorse.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#161

Post by glen wooldridge »

Bob Wooldridge at the helm of this neat landing craft we built and sold up to Galena back in the 1970’s . Powered by a 460ci V8 this 24’ sled was a real workhorse.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#162

Post by glen wooldridge »

Yesterday was Bob Wooldridge's 94th Birthday! Bob has always been a huge part of the business here, and is still going strong today. He's known to make his way around the factory looking things over, checking in with the shop workers and telling jokes as he goes along. Have a Blessed Year ahead Bob!

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#163

Post by glen wooldridge »

Excerpt from the book The Rogue: A River to Run. Written in Glens own words, with the author filling in the story along the way. “Ruell was one of the Billings tribe down at the Agness. He was a quite sort of fellow, didn’t have too much to say, but he was a good boatman, probably the best one on the river at that time. Tom Staley went along with us to take pictures.” They trailered the boat from Grants Pass to Riggins, then drove along the dirt road that went up the river a few miles, looking the rapids over.”

Find the book on the Wooldridge Boats website. www.wooldridgeboats.com

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#164

Post by glen wooldridge »

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Happy New Year!

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#165

Post by glen wooldridge »

Glen senior’s boat shop back in Grants Pass Oregon. The boats pictured are manufactured boats he was a dealer for back in the 50's.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#166

Post by glen wooldridge »

The founder, Glen Sr.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#167

Post by glen wooldridge »

Glen Sr. and Glenn Ballou with two others during the building of Glen's cabin up on the Rouge. They made many trips like this to complete the cabin at Long Gulch. Ballou had worked many years in the lumber and building industries, including being in charge of a portion of the Oregon caves Chateau project. So it was only natural that in his retirement years he would go to work for Glen at the boat shop in Grants Pass, and would do so for another 25 years.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#168

Post by glen wooldridge »

October 31 1977, Dahl Creek Alaska. Its -15 degrees Fahrenheit and these guys are unloading this 18ft Wooldridge sled out of the back of a Fairchild C-82 cargo transport plane! Just another normal day in Alaska! Boat was powered by a 140hp 4-cyl Chevy. Totally awesome!

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#169

Post by glen wooldridge »

Hey Hey Hey! Meet Yogi, Not your average bear, In fact “smarter than you average bear”. Yogi was a frequent visitor to the Wooldridge cabin up on the Rogue and seemed to know to show up just about the time the pancakes were coming off the breakfast griddle. Glen recalls visiting the cabin as a boy and seeing Yogi getting his morning short stack of pancakes. Good memories, from a different day in time!

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#170

Post by glen wooldridge »

Here are pictures of a very early aluminum Wooldridge drift boat. To my knowledge my grandfather was the first to build aluminum drift boats. The first ones were built in the 60’s and had no serial numbers. Some of the features of this one tell me it’s an early boat. With its pipe gunnels welded on the outside of the sides, boats built in the 70’s had the pipe slit and right over the edge of the sides. The oar lock block on the 70’s boats had the oarlock castings changed to fit around the pipe gunnel. The 70’s boats also had channel in the bottom for structure not angle you see here. Interesting side note, phone number shown under his name was the number to his home in Grants Pass, Oregon. -Glen

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#171

Post by glen wooldridge »

My Dad (Bob Wooldridge) passed away this past Sunday morning at the age of 94. My Dad wasn’t just my dad he was my friend. He taught me how to work hard. He showed me faith in his lord Jesus Christ. He showed me determination to do what it takes to get something done. He was compassionate, kind, loving and caring. At 52 years old my dad re-mortgaged the house I grew up in to put a down payment on a building for Wooldridge Boats. Dad and mom had just finished paying their original home mortgage off at the time so this was a big risk. Now at 52 years old he had two mortgage payments to make. He did whatever he could think of to make it work. Working during the day and taking Boats to different events or fishing clubs at night to speak and show my grandfather’s Rogue River movie to help promote business. His dad had taught him that the word “can’t” wasn’t in his vocabulary and he took that to heart. We worked side-by-side in the early years. We would eat lunch in his pick-up truck together and listen to the radio. I commonly called him boss but it never felt that way. We were teammates and friends. Everybody loved my dad. The office ladies that worked for different suppliers where dad would pick up trailers and motors or such would tell me how sweet he was. If someone needed help and it was in his ability, he would do what it took to help them. Without him, there would be no Wooldridge Boats today. I want to thank all the people who have loved and honored my dad. Dad, I love you and will miss you always.

-Glen Wooldridge-

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#172

Post by alumioforte »

Thank you for sharing Glen. Your dear father was an inspiration to many, and a man of unfeigned faith. I will never forget him.
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#173

Post by glen wooldridge »

Thank you.
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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#174

Post by glen wooldridge »

The good ol’ days on the Kenai River with Bob Thompson and Larry Suiter owner of Freebird Fish Camp. When the Kings were big and the engines were too. Boats pictured are Wooldridge Classics.

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Re: Historic Wooldridge Pictures

#175

Post by glen wooldridge »

Photos from Glen’s trip up the Rogue River for the Mercury sponsored film The River Beyond. Mercury gave the film a New York premier, and went on to use the photos for calendars and countless advertisements. Below is an excerpt from the book The Rogue, A RIVER TO RUN of Glen talking about one of the struggles of that trip. “We had to run back and forth some of the rougher spots so the men could get the pictures, and we were doing pretty good until we got to Upper Black Bar. We broke a motor right in two, trying to run Upper Black Bar. Fred Hale was to bring us gasoline down there, fly it in, so we got in touch with him and told him to bring us another motor. But, of course, we didn’t tell that around.”

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