Arkansas traveler
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Arkansas Traveler Boats
Southwest Mfg. Co.
2001 E. 14th St.
Little Rock, Arkansas
The trademark for Arkansas Traveler boats was applied for August 1, 1947 by Fred A. Venner, President of Southwest Mfg. Co. The first use of the Arkansas Traveler trademark in the context of small outboard boats is listed as October 1946. The Chicago Tribune on February 1, 1952 announced the introduction at the Chicago Boat Show of a fiberglass 12 ft, 60 lb., "Small Fry" model among the 11 models offered by Arkansas Traveler. Southwest Mfg. Co. eventually became a subsidiary of the Standard Railway Equipment Mfg. Co. of Chicago, Illinois. This company was later abbreviated to Stanray Corp. Fred Venner was president and general manager of Arkansas Traveler up through 1959. In the preceding year, 1958, Traveler produced 14,000 boats (May 14, 1959 Wall Street Journal). Eventually the boats were simply known as "Traveler Boats" and the company as Traveler Mfg. Co. The company also had operations at Adams, Wisconsin.
Trademark Registration
Model Information (ABOS Publishing)
Model information (Sheler Publishing)
1948 Information
1954 Information
1955 Information:
1957 Information:
1958 Brochure:
1958 Mercury Boat House Bulletins
1958 Arkansas Traveler Runabout Mercury Mark 30 test
1958 Arkansas Traveler Runabout Mercury Mark 30 test
1958 Arkansas Traveler Runabout Mercury Mark 58E test
1958 Arkansas Traveler Runabout Mercury Mark 58E test
1958 Miscellaneous
Arkansas Traveler in 1958 Johnson Ad
1959 Information:
1960 Information:
1961 Information:
1962 Information:
1963 Information:
1963 Traveler Centaur Mercury 850L test
1963 Traveler Saturn DUT 17G Mercury 1000EL test
1963 Traveler Saturn DUT 17G Mercury 650EL test