Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - January 1, 1984
By Susie Dewy
Vigo County Historical Society

Flatboats floated down the Wabash

The flatboat in the model case of the Francis Vigo Room of the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., evokes a spectrum of history, tradition, and romance about Indiana.

The canal flatboat model is detailed and complete with sweep to steer and oars to propel.

Such boats were often built on dry ground and floated to market. Cargoes were usually wheat, corn, pork and whiskey. Pork boatmen were considered the aristocracy of river men and were affronted to be called “corn carriers.” The stigma, however, did not apply to cargoes of liquid corn. Whiskey was a perfectly respectable load.

The flat boat building industry flourished along the rivers and canals of Indiana. Rivers then were wider and deeper than they are today. Courses have changed and channels have silted up in the last 100 years.

The craft built on the banks were usually 100 feet long and 20 feet wide with a depth of 15 feet. A single yellow poplar tree, the favorite wood, often yielded enough wood for one boat. The gunwale of 100 feet long and five feet high was sometimes cut in a single piece from the tree. Other times the tree was hewn into a giant beam of 50 feet long and 36 inches square. The beam was sawed into four timbers, two of which were joined by pins to make the 100 foot long gunwale. The two sides were set up about 20 feet apart with planks between them. The boat was launched into the water and the timbers swelled to make the hull water tight.

To avoid the sand bars and shoals of the shifting river courses required considerable skill from the flatboatmen. They were proud, hard drinking, and violent-tempered men who regarded themselves a breed apart with their own social code. After the hazardous voyage of long hours and hard work, the cargo was sold at either Natchez or New Orleans and the boat sold for its timber. The crew, rich with wages, began the long journey home on foot or by horseback. Many never made it home. In addition to illness and natural disasters, highwaymen lurked on the paths to rob and kill the returning flatboatmen.

The flatboat era in the Middle West began in 1847 when two boats loaded with corn left Indiana in early May. The January freshet and the June rise were important weather factors because the sand bars and shoals were covered enough to allow the shallow boats to proceed south.

Commerce over the 4,000 mile network of rivers and canals lasted as late as the Civil War days. By then technology had made the romantic flatboat obsolete. No longer did passengers and adventurers consider a ride aboard a fast canal packet at four miles per hour exciting.

Another thrill, the railroad, made the slow, leisurely flatboat into an historical item.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley will be closed today through Jan.15 for housecleaning. It will re-open at 1 p.m. Jan. 16.