Townsend's Carl Harper introduced sport to Canyon Ferry some 30 years ago

There is no doubt. Carl Harper is the father of Canyon Ferry iceboating, and his little green boat is the cradle the lake's version of the winter sport was born in. Through the years, Harper introduced many to his icy passion and has built many boats.

The little green iceboat was made of salvaged corral poles and scraps of plywood with a discarded sailboat sail cut down to fit the smaller mast. The only thing new about the little craft is the bright John-Deere-Green paint -- that and the tiny piece of bright orange ribbon that snaps in the wind at the top of the mast. The boat has never had a name. It's always been just the little green boat.

Moored in Magpie Bay next to the newer, manufactured Knight model, which is made of composites and fiberglass with a bullet shaped cockpit and steering wheel, the little green boat looks like a toy made by the kinds of children who build tree forts and go-carts out of discarded parts found in fallen down buildings.

But the little green boat has an honor beyond that of its counterparts on the ice. It was the first iceboat on Canyon Ferry Lake some 30 years ago.

Harper, now a youthful 80-year-old, was one of those children, a dreamer, always crafting and building whatever he could as a child growing up on Lake Modaka outside Madison, Wis.

"You can make an ice boat out of anything," he said. "We even used to put sails on our sleds."

Though ice boating has for years been a pursuit in more eastern locations like Wisconsin and Ohio, before Harper came to the state not many iceboats were seen scooting across the ice on Montana lakes.

Harper was farming in Lennup when he spotted a newspaper with a photo of a lone iceboat sailing across Freezout Lake near Great Falls. Harper said he wasted no time connecting with the boat's owner and the two have been friends since.

"There might have been a few iceboats out there, but I didn't know anything about them until then," he added.

Harper built his little green iceboat that same winter and eventually made his way to Canyon Ferry in search of more places to sail.

Year after year Harper would travel to Canyon Ferry with the little green boat to go iceboating, and before long, Harper found himself a resident of Townsend pursuing his hobby all winter long. Some of the friends and neighbors he met there have taken to the sport and still join him on the ice when there is a good wind.

Now, much later, Canyon Ferry Lake has become known around the world for its iceboating conditions --usually not much snow, and always a strong breeze. Iceboaters from as far away as Germany and Russia have come to race across the ice carried by a strong wind.

Even though this year has been particularly snowy, Harper said he is optimistic that conditions will improve in the next few months. Last week however, he was busy building taller runners for a friend's boat, so the boat will ride above the snow.

"You don't want to end up pushing snow," Harper said. "It'll slow you down."

The boat he modified, the Birdie, belongs to Amy Brakeman. Before making Harper's acquaintance she had never even heard of iceboating, but two years ago, she found herself navigating the length of the lake from the dam to Townsend by iceboat with Hope Harper, Carl's daughter.

Harper will tell you he's made a career out of everything from farming to horseshoeing, but much of his life he was a boat builder from the old school -- all wood. He started in an East Coast shipyard making huge commercial fishing boats and ended up raising his family on Puget Sound in Washington state building sailboats for racing.

"I have always worked for boat builders," he said remembering his first apprenticeship. "I guess they knew I was good with tools and that I would do whatever they asked."

Crafting a boat entirely of wood has become an art in today's high tech society, but Harper said he wouldn't do it any other way. In the front room of his house sits a hand crafted rowboat, and in his workshop is his most recent project -- a skiff he built to go duck hunting.

"In the old days, it required a tremendous amount of skills," he said of wooden boat building.

Harper said he believes the best iceboats are wood and made of pine, spruce if a builder can find it.

"It's the best because it's springy and light," he added.

History of sport goes back to 18th century...

Iceboating is an ancient pursuit, which first took hold in the 18th century in Holland where the Dutch modified sailboats for travel on the canals during the winter months. One hundred years later, iceboating found its way to the United States on the Hudson River. The early boats were large and heavy, and it wasn't until the 1930's, when ice boating took off as recreation, that iceboats have become smaller and swifter.

Iceboating is a direct descendant of sailing, and most of the terms used in iceboating are from sailing. Many home built iceboats are made of parts scavenged from sailboats.

Modern iceboats ride on three steel runners sharpened like ice skates. However, early boats had wooden plank runners with replaceable metal strips on the bottom.

Most are designed to steer with a single runner on the front, but a few designs steer from the back. Most designs carry only one occupant, but a few allow for riders.

An iceboat with a single sail of fewer than 75 square feet is called a skeeter. Iceboats with two sails are called sloop-rigged. Iceboats have been clocked at more than 140 miles an hour.