Here are some 1960's Clayton and 1000 Islands things!

 Uncle Sam Boat Tours ran a fleet of beautiful single-deck wooden cruisers like the one at the top of the postcard stack.  The "Uncle Sam" sat 100 folks, was diesel powered and was one of "twelve cruise boats" operating between May 1st and Nov 1st at the time of the postcard.

American Boat Lines ran a great looking wooden-hull double-decker (the "Adonis"), seen in the middle shot leaving Clayton, with Calumet Island in the background. 

 I dug up this old home movie of the Adonis leaving the docks on the west side of Clayton one morning to get ready for her morning run... great memories!

In the early and mid 60's the American Boat Line added two more double deckers, this time all aluminum.  Named the Venus and the Neptune, these boats plied the tour route on a  "3 hour, 50 minute cruise" well past the last time I saw them in 1970.  They were fun to ride and could throw quite a wake ... lots of fun to ride through if you did it right!  They advertised "Queen of the 1000 Islands.  67 ft. long with a 19 ft. beam and 3 ft. 10 inch draft.  She will carry 223 passengers plus crew... Powered with twin diesel V-8 engines of 672 h.p."

The tour route (at least for Americans) started in Clayton and went around Grindstone to Gananoque Canada, then northeast, looping back under the 1000 Islands Bridge before returning.  The last few minutes of the tour took you by the old coal docks and the Golden Anchor Restaurant!

Other fond recollections of the 1000 Islands?

You betcha!

Paul Malo has a wonderful book entitled "Floating World", and some previous titles of his are:

"Fools' Paradise:  Remembering the Thousand Islands" 

and "Boldt Castle:  In Search of the Lost Story"

Remember the fairy-tale look of Calumet... the castle picture on the Calumet Island page?  Well, here's a picture from one of Paul Malo's books showing the beauty of the structure before it was destroyed by fire...