The move to an urban setting was not exactly smooth sailing. “But we always make sure to yield to Wisconsin.” ![]() “A lot of people think that we’re the original,” says the CEO Cindy Brown. In that respect, the Boston Duck Tours, which launched in 1994, were the first. But the relaxed vibe of the backcountry routes is a far cry from the rambunctious, arguably more notorious tours that wind their way through at least 30 cities worldwide. The Wisconsin Ducks take pride in the label “original”-the company can lay undisputed claim to the first amphibious tour in the country. Today, the Wisconsin Ducks, Gavinski says, has the largest fleet of DUKWs in the country, and their 91 vehicles still date from the Second World War. They launched their first tour as the Wisconsin Ducks in the summer of 1946, says Dan Gavinski, now the general manager of company.īy the next season, the tour company operated 37 DUKWs. Flath convinced Unger to bring his DUKW to the Wisconsin Dells-the scenic landscape surrounding the southern portion of the Wisconsin River. Where he saw an army relic, his fried Mel Flath saw a business opportunity. Bob Unger, a veteran from Milwaukee, snapped up a DUKW, which he had learned to pilot during the war. After the war ended in 1945, the military made surplus supplies available for public purchase. ![]() But they got their start in rural Wisconsin. These days, Boston is one of several cities that operate such tours. Unsurprisingly, they just became known as “ducks.” The name DUKW derived from military equipment coding: D stood for the year of production (1942) U denoted its amphibious quality K indicated front-wheel drive capability W rear-wheel drive. In response, General Motors developed the DUKW-a military-grade vehicle able to operate on both land and water, whose finest moment would come about during the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944. But by that point, most of Europe’s harbors were in tatters the military couldn’t get close enough to land to reach the troops. military was faced with a quandary: with the war ongoing, soldiers stationed overseas were in need of supplies and reinforcements. The tours wend their way past the usual landmarks: the Hancock Tower, the Make Way for Ducklings sculptures, the Boston Public Library.īut on the swanky Newbury Street, “getting folks there to quack and wave back is the main goal,” one captain told The Gainesville Sun in 1995.įor such a tongue-in-cheek institution, duck boat tours have a surprisingly somber origin: World War II. Rain or shine, the 28 boats in the fleet take to the city’s streets and waterways, each captained by a character who tosses back equal shares of personality and Boston history to all aboard. But they’re also far from an uncommon sight. ![]() The Boston Duck Tours are truly unabashedly bizarre. They all wave as they trundle by the shoppers. He lets out a strange sound: Quack! His 32 passengers join in. Boston’s Newbury Street is quiet and leafy high-end stores peek out between sidewalk cafes, where stoppers sit outside, soaking up the sun.īut from down the street lumbers an army utility vehicle, painted tarp-blue and piloted by a man in sunglasses and a tattered red bandana.
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