The Outboard Expert: Off the Map at Lake X
Inside the greatest marine test facility of all time.
August 9, 2007
An aerial view of the Mercury Marine Lake X facility taken in 1967 shows the boathouse, lagoon, and landing strip.
Last week I reported on the new Mercury Marine X-Site test facility in Florida. It was an interesting place to visit, but it just doesn't have the vibe of the former Merc test facility, the infamous Lake X. A place so confidential it didn't have a real name, the Lake X test station was a reflection of the personality of Mercury founder Carl Kiekhaefer, a man so obsessed with secrecy that he allegedly once denied a request from a troop of Boy Scouts to tour his plant in Fond du Lac, Wis., because a spy from hated rival Outboard Marine Corporation might be lurking in their ranks. I still remember my first approach to the electric gate at the entrance to Lake X.
Reaching through my car window, I pushed the button to the squawk box connected to the office. After I identified myself, there was a long pause, and I could imagine the remote gate keeper checking a clipboard list for my name. Then, without comment, the gate groaned open and I drove inside the fence. It was like entering the marine equivalent of Area 51, and in many ways Lake X was as shrouded in mystery as that top-secret airbase in the desert.
Over the years I've run a number of boats at Lake X, swapped MerCruiser sterndrive engines in the shop, and drove a Corvette ZR-1 130 mph down its private air strip. On my last visit, as I tested the then-new Verado outboards, I was told Lake X would be shutting down for good. It was like hearing the Packers would be closing Lambeau Field. I couldn't believe it.
Obsessed with Secrecy
In 1958 Mercury founder and president Carl Kiekhaefer used a bulldozer to cut a road through the swamps into Lake Conlin in central Florida, to facilitate construction of the Lake X facilities.
Kiekhaefer selected the site for Lake X in 1957 after scouting Florida in his company plane. His desire was for a warm-weather location that would offer him absolute privacy for testing new outboards and other confidential projects. Lake Conlin near St. Cloud was accessible only via a dirt trail through cypress woods infested with snakes and alligators. The shore of the 1,400-acre lake was surrounded by private property. There were no buildings and no utility services were available. It was essentially cut off from civilization. Kiekhaefer thought it was perfect, and he began calling his new "undisclosed location" Lake X. With a cigar clamped firmly in his teeth, he used a bulldozer to scrape a road down to the lakeshore. Over 47 years of operation Lake X would become an important testing site for Mercury and a valuable marketing tool. From 1958 to the mid-1970s every new Mercury outboard, racing engine and performance product was tested at Lake X.
During Operation Atlas, boats were run non-stop for 25,000 miles, which necessitated on-the-go driver-changes and refueling. Only one driver fell overboard during the 34-day stunt.
The reputation of Lake X was established immediately by Operation Atlas, an endurance trial that would see two boats powered by 70-hp Mercury Mark 75 outboards run non-stop for 25,000 miles. Mercury engaged the United States Auto Club to sanction the test, and the engines were sealed by USAC, which was supposed to be on-site 24 hours a day to supervise and count laps. Only routine maintenance was to be allowed. Cypress trees had to be blasted out of the lake to make room for a 5.5-mile course to be navigated by a pair of 15-foot Raveau runabouts equipped with 30-gallon fuel tanks and headlights. Because the boats were to run non-stop, refueling and driver changes were accomplished while underway. The refueling boats had 50-gallon drums mounted on a five-foot-high stand and a three-inch hose was passed to the boat driver who attached the hose to the fuel tank. At the end of a four-hour shift, drivers simply hopped back and forth between the boats.
The attempt commenced at 6:58 a.m. on Sept. 11, 1958. After 34 days, 11 hours, 47 minutes and 5.4 seconds, the lead boat completed 4,516 laps and 25,003.2 miles, with the second boat right behind. Mercury garnered much publicity from the stunt. But it was later revealed that while USAC officials were distracted (often when Kiekhaefer took them into St. Cloud for lunch) the Mercury crew worked around the USAC seals and replaced major engine components, on one occasion an entire powerhead. Kiekhaefer was apparently never aware of the tampering.
Dialed In at Lake X
From 1959 to the mid-1960's the facilities at Lake X grew to include seawalls and a lagoon that led to large enclosed boat house. An observation tower with Kiekhaefer's signature round windows was constructed at the mouth of the lagoon.
"The great thing about Lake X was that you could be in and out of the boat house in just a few minutes," said Fred Kiekhaefer, son of the founder and today president of Mercury Racing. "We had all the tools and technicians, all the props and gear ratios. We did a lot of testing for our OEM boat builders at Lake X. The first V-6 outboards were tested there, the first MerCruiser sterndrives, and all our racing engines."
For decades, day-to-day operations at Lake X centered on endurance testing of new outboards.
Endurance testing was also conducted at Lake X in the 1960s and 1970s, usually on 24/6 schedule. The drivers were often the sons of Mercury employees, down for a summer away from Wisconsin. Chuck Kuss recalls answering an ad in the Fond du Lac paper and getting a job as a Lake X driver in 1963.
"I was 19 years old and six of us drove down," said Kuss. "Being kids, we usually got later shifts, which meant we had to try and sleep during the day in house trailers with no air conditioning, which was like trying to sleep in an oven. At night I could see the eyes of alligators glowing pink the boat headlights. And it was so boring. If you had a day shift you'd take a book or magazine along to read. Every once in a while Mr. Kiekhaefer, who they just called The Old Man, would land in a seaplane and check up on things."
During its last decade of operation, Lake X was managed by Mercury Racing for testing and for rigging customer race boats. According to Fred Kiekhaefer, the decision to leave Lake X was based mostly on the speed of modern racing boats.
"As a kid, when I was driving endurance there, it seemed like hours to get around the lake," said Kiekhaefer. "At today's boat speeds, it's seconds. This has become a limitation in the services we can provide. Since we could not stretch the lake, we needed a new X-Site."
The history was left behind.
Editor's Note: Charles Plueddeman is the editor at large for Boating, the nation's largest boating magazine.
