The first Crestliner Boat was built in 1957, but that is not where this "story" started. That was the first year that boats were built under the Crestliner Boats, Inc. name. However, the company actually began in 1946 under the name "Aluminum Boat Company" which operated out of an airplane hanger in Little Falls, Minnesota. Crestliner was bought and sold several times, even being controlled at one time by Genmar. However, in 2005 it was purchased by Brunswick, who operate it today.

Crestliner now produces several models of aluminum bass boats, unbelievably, still out of Little Falls, Minnesota.