Launching the Crib, 1949
Some photos are really awesome… if you understand what is going on. If you don’t, then they are just confusing. At first glance, this is a confusing photo. A bunch of unknown men, by a body of water, moving some giant, wooden thing with barrels. Yeah, this makes sense.
This is one of the famous Rock Island cribs. We’ve discussed the cribs before, in case you’ve forgotten what they are. The barrels show us this is a floating dock and you can see the bottom of the crib right at the waistline of the man in the white shorts.
So, if this a Rock Island Crib, we know a couple of things. The body of water is the Caney Fork River, just down the river from the Rock Island itself. Also, this is most likely from 1949, the first year of the Rock Island Boxwell. “Boxwell III” had many fascinating aspects to it, but the cribs remain the most unique feature and they were not found at any other location.