1968 AuSable River Canoe Marathon

1968 canoe marathon on the AuSable River, Michigan. From Grayling to Oscoda.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• 1968
• canoe
• marathon
• AuSable
• river
• Michigan

[paddletothesea1]

I think Verlen Kruger is in the red canoe. His daughter is posting the footage of her dad etc.

[marywilliams12345]

@paddletothesea1

This took me a while to figure out, but Verlen was a bank runner (at 5:30, in yellow shirt with camera), you get a very quick look at him. The canoe he was supporting has a "Kruger Plumbing and Heating" sticker on it (7:15).

[brioncolleen616]

The 1968 AuSable River Canoe Marathon was run as a two-day stage race (that's why all the race footge is in the daylight).

It was the first year of the LeMans running start for the pros. The amateurs did an interval start in the front of Ray's Canoe Livery and raced to Grayling-Mio and then 5 Channels-Oscoda. In the amateur race that year was the first female participant, Marilyn Wager, with her husband Jerry.

[brioncolleen616]

Results from 1968 (top 5)

1st: Ralph Sawyer/Stan Hall 15:31:43

2: Gib McEachron/Norm Crerar 15:40:08

3: Buzz and Steve Peterson 15:40:57

4: Jerry & Jeff Kellogg 15:54:05

5: Jack Kolka/Jack Kent 16:20:24

[brioncolleen616]

The shot at at 9:39 of the video is also a captioned photo in "Experience the Tradition" page 101.

Front: Ken Ketter, Dave Massey, Don Burklund, Ron Schafer, Ed Adams, Buzz Peterson, Ralph Sawyer, Stan Hall;

Back: unidentified, unidentified, Norm Crerar, Jack Kolka, Jack Kent, Jeff Kellogg, Jerry Kellogg, Steve Peterson, Gib McEachron, Al Widing Sr.

[MegaBigNate]

Anybody able to i.d. these guys? I see Ralph Sawyer, Stan Hall, the Petersons, Al Sr., (all the easy ones).