3000 East Shore Drive - Culver Marina  

Section 27 History 1835-1922

1876 - not stated [by One Townships Yesterdays Jospeh Bozarth purchased in 1865]

1909 - Sep 9 - There is a report that private parties will buy if possible a portion or all of Harvery Norris' farm on the east side of Lake Maxinkuckee for the purpose of establishing an amusement park.

1911 - Aug 31 - Harvey Norris gave each one of his four children a lake fron lot last week

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1922 - H. R. Norris 76.40A

1930 - Norris, Harvey - Maple Grove

1936-1948 - Allen Norris 46.7A

1956 - 1970 - Ernest B. & Mary Lois (Given) Norris, MD; 46.7A

1975-18 May 2004 Culver Marina - Jack E. Campbell & Family

1953 - sep 23 - The Culver Boat Service, operated by Don Behmer for the past eight years, is now operated on a year- round basis by O. D. Campbell and his son, J. E. Campbell under the firm's new name of Culver Boat Company.

From 1953 to summer of 1975 they were located at 636 South Shore Drive - at the Sycamore Rd. on the West Side of the Lake; the original Culver location, which was renamed "Culver Boat Company".

Last year, the Culver Boat Company was moved to the southeast shore of the lake on land purchased by Jack from Dr. E.A. Norris.
A new name was added; Culver Marina Thus they moved the business to the site at 3000 East Shore Drive.

Orrin "Campy" and son Jack Campbell bought the only active boat buisness on Lake Maxinkuckee - Culver Boat Service in 1953.

Before coming to Culver the Campbells were at Sylvan Lake in Rome City where "Campy" had started Campbell's Boat Livery in 1934 selling this business in 1953 they came to Lake Maxinkuckee.

In the Citizen Issue of 24 Sept. 1954 is found: The Culver Boat Company 636 South Shore Drive has under construction a fine new two-story 26 by 120' fireproof building for watercraft storage purposes. The old building on the site was razed to make room for the new. O. D. Campbell and his son Jack say an additional 40 boats may be stored because of the new building.

"Campy" died in 1968/1969 from a sudden heart attack and Jack Sr. found himself managing the Culver Marina.

By 1971 the marina was outgrowing the South Shore Dr. location and had began to rent storage space for the boats which were utilizing the facilities.

They also had included into their operation a wholesale business for distrbuting boat hoists and trailers for the midwestern area; they were sold and delivered to anywhere within a days driving distance distance.

In 1968 boats were being built of fiberglass instead of wood. The fiberglass resulted in lower maintence costs for the boats. Also stern drives were becoming popular and well as higher horsepower motors which were becoming more afforadable for people.

Jack E. and his wife Lelia (Campbell) Campbell bought first 50 acres of land over on the east shore with 1,000 feet of lake frontage in 1970; the Norris Property. Jack Campbell Sr. had obtained a DNR permit to fredge the harbor. After five years of improvements to the site, which included including dredging a harbor, and daming it up, adding a seawall; s talls for 140 boats and also several storage buildings. George Franz done alot of dredging work and welding work for the Campbell's in establishing the Marina site.

The operation expanded over the years till it had three buildings that could store close to 500 boats. Another building was added for the company's distrinbuting operation of Shore Station hoists, trailers and pedal boats; which son David managed. The showroom displayed many kinds of baits (sailing, power) skiing equipment.

Jack brought his children into the business son David managed the hoist and trailer distributorship; Jack Jr. and Susan worked with retail sales.

In 1974 they name was changed to the Culver Marina Inc.

During the early 1990's Jack Sr. let the children - David, Jack Jr. and Susan take over the hand-on-operation while he spent the winter months in Flordia.
The new marina is one of the finest equipped marinas in the midwest. The layout spreads over a 20 Acre tract of land that borders Lake Makinkuckee. There are rental stalls for 100 boats with plenty of parking space for the customers.

The main building houses two private offices, bookkeeping space, floor space for nautical sales items and all boat accessorie items. The main section of the building is a large display room where all varieties of boats and motors are displayed for sale.

The other buildings are used for the winter storage of 400 boats and for the maintenance of all customers' boats and equipment.

The business is really a family affair: Lila, Jack's wife, is the secretary and office manager; son David is the parts manager in the summer months and attends Indiana University in Bloomington in the winter; Jack, another son. is a fine mechanic and also rigs boats, he attends IUSB in the winter; Susan, Campbell's daughter, is part of the office staff in the summertime and attends Culver Girls Academy in the winter. Lila's father, Bob Campbell. is their area salesman. And Aunt Lenore is one of their bookkeepers.

Like all good businesses, Culver Marina has employees who are a part of the tradition of the business. John Powers, Bud Espich, and Henry Goodman have been employed for an average of 15 years.

One interesting piece of equipment besides the huge hoists with lifting capacity of 5,000 lbs., the fork lifts with capapity of over 8,000 lbs., is the deicer machine. The company has 8 deicers used to keep the waterways clear of ice during the winter months. The deicers, electrically controlled, agitate the water to keep it from freezing.

The equipment and sales items are shown at spring shows in the Scottsdale Mall in South Bend, Indiana and Culver Marina show in Culver


Jack Sr. also in later years enjoyed refinishing and restoring boats one thing he had tired of before the fiberglass boats came into being.

He also as a side line loved to restore carousel animals and had restored an entire carousel and other 'kiddie rides' such as boars and cars and had them set up in one of the large buildings on the marina property. By word of mouth children of the area could ride them 'free of charge' on Sunday's but this ceased to exist when a major amusement park accident occured and Indiana tighten the law on amusement rides and insurance for such things skyrocketed. The restored items were eventuall sold to a carousel museum for use as an 'old time amusement park' at Olcutt Beach, New York on Lake Ontario.

Lelia (Campbell) Campbell died in 1982, Jack and her were married in 1950.

Jack Sr. remarried in 1986 Marilyn [-?-].

Around 1997 Jack Sr. was to host an event for he National Carousel Convention - but was unable to do so becauseof a heart attack he had a few days before and was hositalized in Indianapolis for heart surgery - so the the family carried on and held the event.

By the plat maps is found:
• By the 1974 plat map Jack E. and Lila (Campbell) Campbell had purchased 18.2 (20) acres probably from Edna Rose.
• The 1974, 1976, 1978, 1979 and 1981 plat maps still shows Ernest Norris as owner of 46.7 acres
• But by the 1995-6 plat map the Campbells had bought the 46.7 acres of land and with the previous 18.2 made a total of 67.9 and it was listed under "Susan Thews" Jack's daughter.
And some 20 years later daughter Susan stated that another 10 acres was purchased to make the Campbell land holding a f ull 80 acres.

Susan left the business in 1996 and Jack Jr. and David carried on. None of the grandchildren were interested in the the business and carrying on the family tradition - so it was sold in May of 2004.




18 May 2004 - 2024 - Culver Marina / Aker Properties LLC 36.17A & 19.6A - Gary L & Eyvonne A Aker




2004 - Culver Marina has new owners! Gary and Yvonne Aker, Plymouth residents and longtime Culver property owners, have purchased the Culver Marina. Plans are underway for several great events this season.



200_ The Marina’s Boardwalk Bar & Grille, added in recent years, has produced a steady stream of visi tors



2012 - Begining this summer they launched a crusie ponttoon boat cruise wherein there is seating for 20 for a regular cruise 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and seating for 16 for evening dinner crusies which must be scheduled by appointment.; other special crusies during the week can be sceduled by appontment; there are fees per adult and child and cost of food for dthe dinner crusies are above the regular cruise fees' alcohl can not be provided by the Marina, but the guest may bring their own aboard. The crusies heads south wrapping its way around the lake and then up the west shore, to north shore down the east shore back to the Marina.





PRT SW1/4 SEC 26 PRT LOT 4 S1/2 SE1/4 FRL 1/4 SEC
& PRT E 1/2 NE1/4 SEC 34 ALL T32NR1E: BEG AT NE COR OF SEC 34 TH S0-W 142.44
TH N89-04-15W 1308.04 TH N0-12-33E 142.43 TH N89-04-15W 796.67 TH N42-0-48E 126.27 TH N21-31-14W 124.13 TH N43-55-56W