Frank Winter, with his brother-in-law and business partner Fred Dreger, founded the Tomahawk Boat Manufacturing Company in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, in 1945. The firm first made wooden boats, primarily of cedar strip construction and later of plywood. In 1952, Winter began experimenting with the then-new fiberglass, first using it to seal wooden hulls and eventually to build entire boats from molds. In 1953, he produced the world's first all fiberglass-hulled boat and became one of the pioneers of the middle-class boating boom that followed World War II through relatively inexpensive fiberglass boats. As the company's success was rising, its facility was destroyed by fire in 1954, but employees helped rebuild it and full production resumed in a new structure just 89 days later. When boat sales collapsed for a time, the plant turned to other products, including a fiberglass golf cart marketed by Harley-Davidson, milk storage outer shells for Solar, paper mill hoods, billboard frames, Hough cabs, Santa sleighs, stage coaches, fiberglass signs, and saddlebags for Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Harley bought 51 percent of the company around 1960 and the remainder soon afterward, and marketed Tomahawk fiberglass boats under its own name for one year before quickly abandoning the boat business. After the sale, Winter founded Lake Tomahawk Boat Co. and continued making traditional wooden boats until his death in the 1990s. During the height of its fiberglass boat business in the 1950s, Tomahawk was one of the county's leading manufacturers; Evinrude used Tomahawk boats exclusively in its catalog one year, a Tomahawk fishing boat appeared in the U.S. pavilion at the Brussels Worlds Fair, and the company's brochures often showed Winter's children operating or riding in the boats. In 1961, the company unveiled ON TARGET, a one-of-a-kind 18-foot, two-passenger fiberglass prototype racing boat created from Winter's eighteen-year dream and shown at the Marine Trades Exhibit and Conference in Chicago. Promoted as a radical departure in boating, it featured futuristic design, three-point suspension, front rudder steering, and a totally enclosed-by-position locked outboard motor, and its steering system was intended to provide a more level ride. ON TARGET was featured in Newsweek and on the Today television show during a New York City boat show, but despite its advanced design and publicity, it never entered production.