ABOUT
About Lutes Marine & RV
~HISTORY~
During
the summers Dick and Gene Lutes shrimped the bays of Galveston, their kids stayed on a floating houseboat and sold bait. That is where their love for Chocolate Bayou area came in to play.
Dick, a cattle rancher and rice farmer, also owned a casino “The Tophat ” on Highway 6 going to Galveston. Being a man that liked change, he left all that for the life of a shrimper. They lived on the floating barge all summer, going to town for clothes cleaning and supplies.
After a few years of shrimping it was time to change again and it just so happened Walter Johanson was selling his marina on Chocolate bayou. Mr. Lutes was sold! He thought Chocolate Bayou was the “prettiest place he had ever seen.”
Mr. Lutes bought the marina in 1954 and Lutes Marine was born. In 1957 Dick Lutes was paralyzed when the cradle from the boat lift fell on him and broke his back and neck. Many people can remember him
rolling to the marina in his wheelchair from his house.
Years go by and the kids move off but the marina remains: Then in 1972 one of the kids, Barbara, and her husband Tommy and kids Darline and Cody moved back to the marina to help the aging couple run the place.
In 1977, Mr. Lutes made an offer to Barbara and Tommy to let them buy the marina, they took him up on it and Barbara has been here ever since.
Floods and Hurricanes: In 1979 Alvin got a rain storm that flooded the complete area with 60+ inches of rain. The marina store that once sat over the water was washed away with the rushing water along with the boat lift.
It was a full year before Lutes was back up and running fully. They came back with a new lift, new store and a new outlook.
The business was booming and life was good.
Still later - Hurricane IKE: In September 2008 IKE We left right before storm hit and returned early morning next day and the place looked like a bomb went off.
A complete set of 50 boat stalls and another single row of 20 where destroyed and the material was everywhere. It was devastating to see the place like that but thanks to friends and family we jumped in and had the place cleared in a few months.
Looking at the slab we thought that it might be a good time to test out the RV park option.
History
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