In 1906, Carl Muller was 17-years-old and living in Stillwater, working at his family’s boat business on the St. Croix River. That’s when the superintendent of Interstate Park in Taylors Falls asked for help providing boat tours of the famous St. Croix Dalles. Carl soon headed 25 miles up the river with his eight-passenger boat the Pinafore. Twelve decades later, the business is still owned and operated by his descendants.

When Carl started offering tours of the Dalles, the logging era was winding down and the St. Croix River’s recreation era was truly beginning. Interstate State Park had been designated by the legislature in 1895, and Wisconsin had matched it on the other side of the river in 1900. Taylors Falls had been connected to the railroad in 1880, though now automobiles were starting to reach the river town as well, and people from Minneapolis and St. Paul were looking for places to explore outside the cities.

Carl and the Pinafore were the right man and the right craft in the right place at the right time.

River life

In early June, I joined vice president Amy Frischmon, Carl’s great-great granddaughter, for a ride on the Taylors Falls Princess, one of the company’s two double-deck tour boats, both built in the 1980s. Amy and her brother, Dan Raedeke, are the fourth generation of Mullers to run the business, which is celebrating 120 years this summer.

It was a warm afternoon, the boat was not full, and we sat and watched the river go by and talked about the history of the company, the family, and the countless passengers that have taken a tour in the past 120 years. As we rode down to Franconia and back, she pointed wildlife like great blue herons and her “favorites,” turtles basking on logs.

Frischmon grew up in the boat business, selling tour tickets at the dock at 10-years-old, jumping in the water when she got hot and bored. But once she reached adulthood, she went out and saw the world, including a few years living in Guam.

”It was always Dad’s rule to get a college education and work somewhere else for at least two years,” she said. “Then it’s a choice to come back.”

This spring, two members of the fifth generation of Mullers “came back,” as Frischmon’s son and nephew returned from college and other work to rejoin the business.

The family also owns two other related businesses in the area: Taylors Falls Canoe & Kayak Rental, which operates out of Interstate Park on the Minnesota side, and Wildwood Campground, just up the hill. The canoe rental business was also founded by Carl Muller, which he launched in 1910 with canoes he made himself. The company acquired the campground in 1995.

From 1972 to 2020, the company also owned and operated Wild Mountain, the downhill skiing, tubing, and water park on the river bluffs just north of Taylors Falls.

The tour boats remain as an important part of the business and iconic vessels for touring one of Minnesota and Wisconsin’s most scenic places.

Shallow drafts

The water has been low this year. The Princess draws about 17 inches of water when fully loaded. On our early June cruise, a company employee in a small boat zipped up and down the river to scout the route and guide the captain by radio through a couple points where the boat passes over gravel shoals.

Paddlewheel boats plied the St. Croix for 90 years, with the first steamer reaching the Dalles in 1838 and the last one discontinued in 1928. They were ideal for navigating the fluctuating depths of America’s rivers, although they were also top-heavy and their steam engines were prone to explosion. When Carl Muller started operations, he used a boat driven by a prop motor.

But back in 1980, more than 50 years since the last paddlewheeler had plied the Dalles, the Taylors Falls Queen came up the river from La Crosse to her new home at the Taylors Falls dock. Previous boats had just had a paddlewheel for aesthetics, but were propelled by a prop. The Queen, soon joined by the Princess, relies on its old-school paddle wheels.

It’s not the only way the company has stayed true to the river’s roots.

Carl Muller was a teenager when he started giving tours on the river. The company still employs many local teens during the summer, and they are a key part of the company, along with several employees who have been on board for more than 20 years each.

Consistency and change

The boat business has changed a lot in some ways over the past 120 years. Among other things, the craft are bigger and there are online reviews to worry about.

The beauty of the river remains, but so does its variability.

“It’s always changing, but it’s consistent,” Frischmon says. That goes for both the river and the business.

In recent years, the company built a new ticketing building, adorned by a large-scale mural by local painter Mary Pettis, and a patio perched over the rushing waters of the Dalles. They also rent out a lot of kayaks, a craft that would have likely seemed exotic to Muller. In recent years, they changed the kayak fleet over to sit-on-top models, which Frischmon says are easier for a lot of folks.

Yet, in significant ways, the company keeps doing just what Carl Muller began in 1906. The family and their employees help get people on the water to experience the stunning scenery of the St. Croix River.