Recently, some one inquired what happened to the commercial boats that were on Honey Lake. It should be duly noted that were two major commercial boats on the lake. The first one, was built in 1895 by Jake Yanner and George Clark. They based their operation at the Joe Decious ranch near Milford. The boat was first built with a propellor, but did not function properly. They modified it into a side wheeler. The boat was 60 feet in length and had a load capacity of 30,000 pounds. It was used primarily to transport lumber and freight between Amedee and Milford. By 1902, the lake was too shallow for boating and in 1903, the lake went dry. The vessel remained docked at the Decious place for many years. During the winter of 1937-38 the high waters of Honey Lake washed it away from its moorings. The boat drifted down shore for about 175 yards where it fell apart.
In 1907, Spoonville resident, E.C. Brown landed a contract to supply one million board feet of mining timbers to Goldfield, Nevada. As the timber and sawmills were on the west side of the Honey Lake Valley and the railroad on the east side, he needed to resolve the transportation problem. Brown purchased a tugboat that the U.S. Customs used on the San Francisco Bay. Brown had a special barge made for hauling the mining timbers across the lake. A year later, the contracts fulfilled the boat was docked at Barham’s near the mouth of Baxter Creek. In 1912, Brown sold the boat to Nevada millionaire, George Wingfield who converted into a pleasure craft. In 1915, it was docked for the last time near Baxter Creek. During the 1930s, unknown parties removed the engine for scrap metal. Remains of the hull were still there in 1987 when I participated in an informal sailing regatta held near there.