Dallas graduated from Chaska High School in 1956 and kept working at the Ski Factory.  Why does everybody with a history in Victoria call it the Ski Factory?  Because the most famous product ever built there was the water ski.  Dalles tells the story ...
"We got to know Adolf Kiefer.  He was a former Olympic Gold Medalist in the back stroke.  He taught swimming.  We met him through a guy looking for someone to build skis, a guy who found our family business.  Our first skis were made in the old Creamery building.  We made them for Sears Roebuck and Com-pany.  Adolf Kiefer was a buyer for Sears."

In the meantime, Karen Webber was on Dalles' mind.  Karen, who has the chronology down pat, said "We met in May, I graduated in June, by December 14^th we were engaged, and we got married the following June."
They were married at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Crystal on June 6^th, 1959, within one year of meeting each other on the waterfront at the Excelsior Amusement Park.  They drove his '57 Ford to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, for their honeymoon.
The young couple rented an apart-ment in Hopkins for a couple years - "The building is still there," said Dalles - and that's where their first child, Pamela, was born.  Pamela only lived two weeks.  She was born with her intestines exposed.  "Today the doctors can fix things like that," said Dalles.  It was a heartbreaking loss.
Then they moved out to Victoria to the very home they live in today, near the ballpark on Quamoclit Street.  "Kenny and Jerry Diethelm were building it in 1961 and we picked out the floor and the woodwork," said Dalles.  "We picked out everything.  I sanded the sheetrock and laid the oak floor." 
In January of 1962 they moved into their Victoria home.  "Karen didn't want to move out here because it was so far from the Cities," said her husband, but today Dalles and Karen can't imagine spending their lives anywhere else.
"We have a lot of friends here now and our children and grandchildren are nearby," agreed Karen.
Daughter Melinda, a Patient Service Representative at the Ridgeview Chanhas-sen Clinic, is married to Steve Giordano and has two children, Dillon and Pamela, who was named after Melinda's sister.  They live in Chanhassen.
Daughter Brenda, a Paraprofessional in Math at Chaska Middle School West, is married to Tim Moore and has three children, Grant, Jason, and Paul.  They also live in Chanhassen.
Daughter Roxane, a Paraprofessional in Special Education at Chaska schools, has two children, Fenton and Triston.  They live in Chaska.
Son Alan, who works at Minnesota Recreational Vehicles, is married to Christine and has three children, Camren, Evan, and Ryan.  They live in Maple Plain.
Karen points out that she has nine grandsons and one granddaughter.  "I babysat the boys for years and years," she said, "and now I'm babysitting our grand-daughter and youngest grandson."

Dallas said that after his dad died in 1975, he and his brothers were all stockholders in the company.  "Dad named it Lake Region Products.
"At one time we also made trellises for Donaldson's Garden Lot over on Lyndale," he said.  "Now it's the Lyndale Garden Center.  We sold trellises by the truckload.  They were being advertised on television by Bud Kroehling - buy a trellis and get a free rose.  We sold thousands of trellises."
"Ben Schmidt and Irvin Kunze, Dad's longtime employees, put more time in on making the fencing and kite sticks so my brothers and I could concentrate on building the water skis.," said Dalles.  "We sold water skis to retail establish-ments for anywhere from $45 to $125, all sizes ...
"Originally we started making private labels - Sears Skis, Adolf Kiefer Skis, Cut 'n Jump Skis out of the West Coast.  In 1976 we introduced our own Lake Region brand water skis.  I did all the silk screen-ing of the skis including the USA ski which was very popular with its patriotic theme.  We purchased equipment that cost tens of thousands of dollars.  We'd bring skis to McCormick Hall in Chicago, which was the biggest exhibition hall in the world.  Just to give you an idea of how big it was, there were 19 restaurants in that place."
Oftentimes Karen would travel with her husband to the shows and exhibitions.  "When we got back we made sure we  took the kids to Uncle John's Pancakes," said Dalles.
"When we were really diversified, we probably had 35 employees," he contin-ued.  "Pretty much anybody who grew up in Victoria worked there.  They tell me it was a good experience for them.  I'd say our peak sales were in the early '80's ...
"That's about the time we became Lake Region International and sold skis to places like Venezuela.  We also had distributors all over the country.  That's when lawsuits started to come in.  We failed to warn people that they could get hurt water skiing.  That ended up wiping us out.  From 1980 to 1985 I'd sit for hours and fill out depositions.  I'd be in court for a week straight.  I remember one day I picked up the mail - Post Office Box 65 here in Victoria - and there was a lawsuit for $1.2 million and at the same time a cancellation of our insurance.  We went out of business in 1985."
The curved-roof building then sat either vacant or partly occupied until Kahnke's got it in 1996 for Nature's Bounty Garden Center and Gifts.
Click here to continue On the Waterfront.