Lewis and Clark's Folding Boat? | SouthernPaddler.com

Lewis and Clark's Folding Boat?

oldyaker

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
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More from Lewis and Clark...Didn't know about a folding boat...

Harpers Ferry

"In February 1803 Congress approved Jefferson's request to fund an expedition. By mid-March Lewis was on his way from Washington DC, to the US Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, in present-day West Virginia, to gather military hardware for the trip.........."

"Lewis also wanted the arsenal workers to do him a special favor. He asked them to build a collapsible iron-framed boat he designed himself. Lewis referred to this as" my darling project," but the armory workers had difficulty
executing Lewis' design for the boat, and the endeavor wound up keeping Lewis in Harpers Ferry for more than a month. When it was finished, however , Lewis was pleased. The frame weighed just 100 pounds but the completed craft would be capable of carrying about 1700 pounds!
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oldyaker

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
1,949
31
You musta paddled it Jack!

Still, The idea of this in 1803 is still amazing....to me anyway.


Three Forks MS or MT? I'm looking for the reference where it was left.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Montana, where they left caches before tackling the Continental Divide. Most of their caches were washed down steam the next spriing after returning from Fort Clatsop on the coast.

Read "First Across the Continent". You can disregard "Undaunted Courage" with impunity. Ambrose was an amateur. When they wrote the "Foxfire Books", high school kids in Rabun Gap GA did a better job of research than he did.
 

maddog

Member
Feb 28, 2008
12
0
Fort Walton Beach Florida
Kayak Jack said:
The scrap iron of it laid at Three Forks for a while. It never panned out to be worth a tinker's dam.

I think I read somewhere Jack that the problem was the buffalo hides they used to cover the frame. They rotted or leaked I forget which. I suspect green or poorly cured buffalo hides don't take kindly to being immersed and then dried out.
I am thinking if they had used a canvas covering with some kind of waterproofing like pitch,tar or paint, it might have been more successful.