Mercury Marine Returns to Lake X

Mercury Marine is reviving a piece of its history as the company returns to its storied Lake X proving ground in Central Florida.

The Lake X facility was designed and built by Mercury Marine founder Carl Kiekhaefer in 1957. Located on Lake Conlin in Osceola County, Florida, when it opened, Lake X was the most secluded marine testing facility in the world, with 12,000 acres of land and 1,440 acres of private water. Mercury used the facility for performance tests of Mercury-powered boats, R&D, new product testing and endurance validation until 2004, when it chose to not renew its lease. The property is owned by the Kirchman Foundation. A new lease has now been negotiated between the Foundation and Mercury.

Boat-to-boat refueling during Mercury’s 50,000 mile endurance run on Lake X.

“Mercury Marine is closing in on its 80th anniversary in 2019 and we have a rich heritage that is unmatched in the marine industry,” said Michelle Dauchy, Mercury Marine chief marketing officer. “Returning to Lake X is an opportunity to build an immersive brand experience around that heritage and capitalize on the popularity of the Mercury brand. We have been able to host customer and media events as well as take advantage of the lake to test product.”

The secluded freshwater lake is perhaps best known for one of Mercury’s most famous PR events that took place in 1957, where a 50,000-mile endurance run, featuring two boats running continuously on a closed 5.8-mile course, 24 hours a day, seven days a week made marine industry history.

“We hear stories all the time about folks who worked for Mr. Kiekhaefer and their wonderful experiences at Lake X,” said Dauchy. “We want to create new memories and build on our heritage of performance, reliability and to merge together our new Go Boldly brand cache with almost 80 years of history.”