Anybody Familiar With Flatboats?

[limegoldconvertible68]

So I think I have located an old town (circa 1850's) on a river where they used to load flat boats with hoop poles and lumber. My understanding is that the flat boats were 70' long and 18' wide. I know the boats would float down river and when the goods were sold the boats were no longer needed so they would be sold as scrape lumber. Is anyone familiar with the beginning of the journey. Did they build these flatboats in the water or were they built on land and somehow pushed or dragged into the river? Did someone make these boats as a career, some sort of boatbuilder or did each person build his own boat when he had enough goods to deliver to market? Also what kind of structures would a flatboat town have at the rivers edge and would there be much money exchanged at the river? I expect this to be my first endeavor into the area of a relic hunter but I don't really know what to expect. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

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[Mackaydon]

On occasion, flatboats were also rigged with sail.

"As early as the 1720s, New Orleans was a center of international commerce with river-related enterprises such as a flat boat construction industry."
Source: http://www.nps.gov/history/delta/volume2/outdoor.htm

 

[mojjax]

I went on a ride on a replica of an old canal boat in Ohio 5 years ago . it was pulled along by a couple Big draft horses that walked on the shore . It was long and about 20 feet wide . it had no stern , just a bow on both ends , they were too long to turn around in the narrow canal . the horses rope would be reconnected to the other bow for the trip back .

 

[FCCDFEd]

Limegold.....

I'm in Calif. and once had a flat bottom boat, we called it a john boat, it had no "v" shaped hull and it was about 12' long. The one and only lesson I learned from it was "DON'T EVER STAND UP IN IT" cause it tips real easy. Splash, it dumped me and my dad and all the gear in the water. Luckily we were in shallow water about 4 feet.

 

[truckinbutch]

Flatboat transportation in my area ; Morgantown , WV on the Monongahela river system ; began about 1790 .
The average boat was a downriver craft only . 15'wide by 50'long flat bottom craft with a raked bow and square stern . Initial platform constructed on skids on a sloping river bank and eased into the water for finishing and loading . Timber , hewn timbers , and planks comprised the vessel . Sweep oar
on each side for propulsion and one aft for steering . Some were equipped with a sail and a 'gouge' oar on the front to aid steering .
A long rope was also critical to winch them over sand bars and riffles before slack water (dams) were
established.
They carried 40 to 50 tons of cargo each with a destination as far away as New Orleans .
One of the most lucrative cargoes was Monongahela Rye whiskey .
The boats , themselves , were not sold for scrap . Their materials were highly prized for quality lumber .
I'll provide more details if there is any interest .
Jim

 

[limegoldconvertible68]

Butch, that's exactly the kind of info I am looking for. I am hoping to gain as much insight as possible so that when I stand there on the riverbank I might be able to make a mental picture of what this area looked like. In its heyday it had a couple hundred people living there so I am thinking plenty of activity down by the rivers edge. I would love any more knowledge you can impart to me.

 

[Mackaydon]

Excerpts from the source listed below:
By the time the Davy Crockett floated out into the Wabash River and headed towards the Ohio , flatboats were among the most common vessels on the major rivers of the frontier. The first flatboats probably plied the Ohio in the 1780s.

On December 20, 1834, a flatboat, crewed by five men, carried 14,000 pounds of barrel-packed pork and beef, more than 350 chickens, and a variety of other agricultural products set off down the Wabash River headed to New Orleans.

In 1801, Zadok Cramer published The Navigator, a small volume which was improved and republished on a regular basis until 1824; Samuel Cumings then began publishing The Western Pilot based on Cramer's work, and by the 1834 the crew of the Davy Crockett would have had access to a yearly update. Each edition of the book detailed the bends and turns in the rivers, pointed out navigational difficulties, described towns and cities, and broke the voyage down by numbering each island in the rivers.

The flatboat that one group sailed was on the large end of the common size range: 80 feet long and 17 feet wide (width usually ranged from 12 to 20 feet; length from 20 to 100 feet). The boat, like all flatboats, was steered with three large oars: the pilot controlled the main steering oar at the aft, and two large sweeps extended from the port and starboard.

Scholars put the cost of building an average flatboat at $1.00 to $1.50 per foot; one author estimated that a family group could build a boat in six weeks.

For diagrams of flatboat construction, see Donald E Carmony, ed., "Flatboat Building on Little Raccoon Creek, Parke County , Indiana," Indiana Magazine of History 60 (December 1964), 305-322. References to other aspects of flatboats are given throughout an article found here:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache...oat+construction"&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&ie=UTF-8

Don......

 

[Tubecity]

The flatboats built for the Lewis & Clark Expedition were built only a few miles from here. They hold a
celebration & river fair every year. Until the steel mills went down in the 1980's, this area still had many
barge building & repairing yards. Around here the barges were built & slid down the riverbanks on rails
sloped towards the river. It was said, the flatboats were often attacked by Indians 8 miles or so before
reaching Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river.

 

[truckinbutch]

The Mon river system is the second largest north-flowing river system in the world . Changes direction
and name in Pittsburgh , PA . They come up to see us and we go down to visit them .
Early westbound travelers from MD , Pa , and eastern VA built boats here because of the timber resources and a major waterway that enabled them to continue their journey more efficiently after crossing the Allegheny Front chain of mountains .
Local farmers could transport 4 bushels of locally grown rye per horse in an eastbound packtrain to trade for salt at $5 per bushel or iron at 18 cents per pound . 24 bushels of the same rye , fermented and distilled would fit in two 8 gallon kegs on the same horse . Much more profitable ...
Same thing with flatboats . Tableland Trails has pen and ink drawings of two man flatboats going down the Mon loaded with 48 50 gallon barrels of whiskey . Indians were a threat and river piracy was
rampant .
A hundred gallon copper still was equal in value to 200 acres of good cropland so few individuals had their own . Most communities had a co-op still operated on shares .
Most building/launching sites are under water due to slackwater (lock and dam) projects that began in the late 1800's .

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

early on the people built their own flat boats. later they were built for sale in boat yards. Some maps still show the locations of the boat yards. siegfried schlagrule

 

[mrjosh]

It has been my understanding that most people built their own. Near here is a house that was constructed from one of the flat boats. It is or was as of the last few years still standing. Also there is a cave that a group of people would hide in and flag down the flatboats to rob and murder them.

 

[digluv]

Also there is a cave that a group of people would hide in and flag down the flatboats to rob and murder them.

Now those are sites I'd like to hunt

 

[mrjosh]

Also there is a cave that a group of people would hide in and flag down the flatboats to rob and murder them.

Now those are sites I'd like to hunt

The cave is a state park, they wont allow md'ing. As for the house I think its a private owner.