Lots of wear-tear on Lewis and Clark boats

One thing that's clear about the Missouri River: it's hard on wooden boats.

That's one reason the Lewis and Clark reenacters decided to take their winter break back in the St. Louis area. The replica keelboat and smaller pirogues need plenty of reconditioning.

But, boat builder Jim Rasher of St. Charles says the boats will be in top shape when the Journey of Discovery trip resumes next April. During 2005, the reenacters will retrace the rest of the original Lewis and Clark exploration to the Pacific Ocean.

(For a recap of activities since the reenacters left St. Louis in May, 2004, click here. The team stopped at Fort Mandan, S.D., last month to start a winter break.)

Since the boats are back, St. Louis-area kids can keep track of the winter repair work.

A lot of the repair of the keelboat and the "red" and "white" pirogues will be done at the Lewis and Clark Boathouse and Nature Center. It's located on the Missouri riverfront in downtown St. Charles.

The Nature Center is a unique building. The first floor is open to view from outside the building. The exploration boats are located there for the winter.

The Nature Center is enclosed on the second floor. It's open to the public and has historical Lewis&Clark displays. For information, call (636) 947-3199.

Mr. Rasher is in charge of building and maintenance on all the boats. He also serves as captain on the keelboat when the traveling is underway.

The boats were built in St. Charles. The keelboat has had 10,000 miles of travel on the nation's rivers. And, after the trip on the Missouri this year, it's showing wear and tear.

The keelboat is 55 feet long and 91/2 feet across at its widest point.

The boat gets its name because of a pronounced "keel" or ridge on the bottom of the boat. The keel stabilizes the boat. Rasher said a 10-foot piece of the keel is broken. He said the damage occurred when river debris hit the keel on a slant.

He said there is a lot of tree stumps and other debris in the Missouri.

"Where the Osage River comes into the Missouri near Jefferson City, we ran into debris that spanned the river," he said. "It looked just like a beaver dam across the whole river."

Debris punched holes in the fiberglass coating on the outside of the boat. The water then soaked into the wood and started to rot it.

But, the "red" pirogue suffered the most damage. He said the boat leaked at the rate of 60 gallons a day. Hand-operated bilge pumps had to run almost constantly.

To repair that pirogue during the winter break, the crew will rip off all the hull bottom. "We'll cut the bottom to 2 inches above the waterline and replace all the planks," he said.

The pirogue will have to be tipped upside down to do the work. Plans are to transport the boat to a covered garage at the Busch Conservation Area. That way, the workmen can do repairs in a warm building.

Ironically, it also was the "red" pirogue that gave the original Lewis and Clark expedition the most trouble. That boat didn't survive the 1804-06 journey, Rasher said.

Both the original and the reenactment journeys used lots of different boats.

Both started with a keelboat and two pirogues from St. Louis. But, when the rivers got too shallow or ended altogether, they had to switch to other transportation.

The original keelboat was left at Fort Mandan because the Missouri was already too shallow. The keelboat returned to St. Louis, carrying the first plant and animal specimens back for scientific study.

Use of the pirogues stopped at the Great Falls area in what is now Montana. From there, the original crew used canoes and horses to get over the Continental Divide. On the western side, they went back to larger boats.

They used the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers to get to the Pacific Ocean.

If you go to the St. Charles center, you'll see one of the different types of boats the reenacters will use for the western river travel. This flat-bottomed boat is 30-feet long and 5-feet wide.

The original explorers made each western-side boat from single Ponderosa pine log. One log could make a whole dugout canoe.

But, Rasher said the reenacters boat is made out of pine boards. "The Ponderosa pine trees don't come in that size anymore," he said.