Recreational boating was not one of the priorities at the time the dam was constructed, but there was a tremendous boom in recreational boating in the years after the war. Mahogany inboard boats by Chris Craft and Century ruled the waves, but outboard motors by Evinrude, Johnson, and Mercury made boat ownership available to the average working family. Someone even welded two lines of 55 gallon drums together and invented the pontoon boat.

As a result of the postwar baby boom and economic boom, recreational boating led to a need for boat docks for people without homes on the lake. The original boat docks are believed to have been installed by Jacob Spanko on the north side of the Route 40 bridge, but it is known that the boat dock concession was transferred to William C. Quinette in the late 1950’s. After several years, Bill Quinette was losing his sight and decided he had to retire.

At the same time, “Big Al” Leskinen was looking for a marina business to own. Al Leskinen was born in 1927, the son of recent Finnish immigrants, and served in the U.S. Navy in the south Pacific (shoveling coal in the engine room) in the last two years of World War II. In 1969, “Big Al” decided to change careers and pursue the vocation that he loved. American Marina Development Corporation was incorporated in New Jersey, and W. C. Quinette Boat Docks was the first marina purchased.

Al renamed the docks “Yough Lake Marina.” During his tenure, he engineered the purchase of Skager Boat Sales of Duquesne, which brought the Sea Ray franchise for the western end of Pennsylvania with it; and also the purchase of the “Holiday Harbor Marina” on the Allegheny River near Fox Chapel. The number of docks at the Yough Lake Marina was more than doubled to 212. Wooden boats were replaced by fiberglass, two wooden skis were replaced by single fiberglass water skis, and faster, more powerful boat engines even allowed for “barefoot” water skiing. Unfortunately, on October 5, 1980 “Big Al” was towing a trailer from Holiday Harbor to the Yough when his truck was hit by a drunk driver in a full size van on Route 40 near Braddock’s Grave. The two persons in the van were killed instantly, and Al did not survive the helicopter flight to Allegheny General Hospital.

Ultimately, Al’s surviving widow, Jane Leskinen decided she could not continue operating the Marina, and on July 3, 1983 the business assets were sold to Leskinen Enterprises, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation owned by her step-son Steve Leskinen and his family.

Steve is the youngest child of Al Leskinen, and he started working at the Marina in June of 1969 as a fifteen year old “dock boy.” Steve continued working at the Marina through college and law school, becoming a certified outboard motor mechanic along the way. Steve and his wife Shanon, and their younger children Shane and Bret still spend a substantial part of the summer on board their houseboat and ski boat at the Marina.

In 1984, the Marina was moved to a seven-acre site on the south side of the Route 40 bridge, where facility usage is now strictly limited to Marina customers and their guests only. The Marina has expanded to 340 slips, rents new and late model pontoon boats, provides indoor and outdoor off-season boat storage, and performs mechanical work on anything that floats. The Marina also sells gasoline and operates a marine store. Waterskiing is still popular, but wakeboarding, jet skis, giant tubes, and “rafting” in a quiet cove seem to be the “today” activities.