Steven Steele (Lebanon) is a second-generation McKenzie River drift boat builder. He learned from his father, the legendary Keith Steele, who "perfected the craftsmanship of what was there." Demand for custom-made wooden drift boats has decreased as more and more people turn to easier-to-maintain aluminum skiffs to fish in the fast-moving McKenzie River. These days, a good year means building ten boats for those devoted to preserving the tradition of wooden McKenzie River drift boats.
Bio
Steven Steele is a second-generation McKenzie River drift boat builder. He learned his craft from his father, Keith Steele, who learned from Woodie Hindman. Both Steele senior and Hindman are all legends in the drift boat community. In the early 20th century, local boat builders had developed the design for a small, light skiff tailored to the McKenzie River’s fast-moving waters and the fishing guides who navigate the rapids. By the 1930s, Steele explains, his father had "perfected the craftsmanship of what was there." Steven Steele grew up in his father's busy shop; standing on apple crates, he and his brother Stan would do assembly line jobs, keeping up a pace of a boat a day. In the 1950s and 1960s, "it was nothing to be 60-70 boats behind." Now, in the 2010s, ten boats a year is a good year for Steele. The classic Steele McKenzie drift boat is 16 feet long and 48 inches wide, with a flat transom (the back or stern of the boat) for an outboard motor. Steele still uses old-growth marine plywood that he inherited from his father; this plywood is no longer sold for boats that weigh around 200 pounds. The demand for wooden boats has decreased significantly with the advent of larger, heavier, and easier-to-maintain aluminum boats. Steele is all too aware that his family's legacy might end with him. He’s helped to preserve the regional tradition as well as his family’s heritage with a commission to build three display boats for the Cabela's in Springfield. Each of the three represents a different era in the McKenzie River drift boat's design—the square-ender, double-ender (pointed at bow and stern, which makes it easier to pivot the boat in fast running rapids), and the “classic” design still used today that permits an outboard motor to be attached.
