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Escorted Tours on the Ohio River

Travel by flatboat as the settlers of 200 years ago!

Take your family on a camping trip on a riverboat!

On your next vacation, reserve a week or two aboard an historic flatboat of the style used by the American pioneering settlers of the late 1700's and the early 1800's.

Dress in historical clothing.  Cook over a fire on the bow or on shore.  Sleep aboard on deck or ashore in a hammock or tent or an inn.

Learn the geography of the rivers of America.  Learn about the history of the Ohio Valley.  Visit islands and riverports.  See great blue herons, hawks, gulls, turtles, fish, etc.  Bring a fishing pole or make your own from bamboo.

When in port, take visitors on a tour of our "time machine" to show how the settlers floated downriver on boats with no engine--before the Age of Steam.

Couples and individuals also welcome.

Training provided.  Safety First!  Ask where to get your historical clothing.

Optional: 

• Take a truckload of your lumber to the boat-building site in Gallatin, TN. 
• Help the boat-builder build a flatboat or a dug-out canoe or birch-bark canoe.
• Take photos and video to upload to this web site.
• Serve as a Port Agent.  If you live near a town on the Ohio River, you would find a suitable landing site, contact the mayor, the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief, the news media, and the schools.
• Students on the crew may send reports to their school and to our web site.
• Bring a well-trained Newfoundland dog, similar to "Tiger" that was kept by the Roosevelts.

 

After the boat trips below, let's take these boats on tour in a flotilla to all the rivertowns so that school field trips and the public might visit on board these "time machines" to realize how the trans-Appalachian West was settled and how commerce was conducted before the advent of the modern Diesel towboats.

Planning for the Year 2011

To celebrate the bicentennial of the first steamboat to go down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, let's build a replica of that boat, the steamer NEW ORLEANS!  Then, let's "sail" it along the same route as Nicholas Roosevelt took with that remarkable boat from October 1811 to January 1812--from Pittsburgh to New Orleans!

Boat-builders wanted!  Do you have skills in carpentry, welding, wiring, or plumbing?  If not, will you help those who do?

Crew wanted!  No experience required.  Families, couples, and individuals are invited to apply for either one week or two or for the entire adventure.

Port Agents wanted!  If you live near a city on the Ohio or lower Mississippi River, you would locate suitable landing sites, contact the Mayor, the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief, the news media, and the schools.  When the boat arrives, you would drive the crew to showers and stores.

Financing wanted! 

Planning for the Year 2009

Let's build a flatboat to re-eanct the 1809 flatboat trip by the newly-married Nicholas and Lydia Roosevelt!

In 1809, Mr. Roosevelt was sent by Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton to discover the potential for steamboat business on America's western rivers.

We will run the Monongahela, the Ohio, the Great Kanawha, the Cumberland, and the lower Mississippi Rivers.  The itinerary will be designed to maximize the opportunity for schools to schedule field trips to visit on board our "time machine" for tours guided by the crew in their own historical clothing.  If arrangements can be made in each city, the flatboat will make major stops in:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Steubenville
3. Wheeling
4. Marietta
5. Parkersburg and Blennerhassett Island
6. Pomeroy
7. Pt. Pleasant (WV)
8. Charleston
9. Huntington
10. Ironton
11. Portsmouth
12. Maysville
13. Augusta
14. Cincinnati
15. Aurora (IN)
16. Louisville
17. Evansville
18. Nashville
19. Paducah
20. Metropolis or Ft. Massac
21. Memphis
22. Greenville
23. Vicksburg
24. Natchez
25. Baton Rouge
26. New Orleans

As above for 2011, the flatboat trip will need boat-builders, crew, port agents, and financing.

The current plan is to have the flatboat built by Captain John Cooper of Gallatin, TN, on the Cumberland River.  He built the flatboats DOUBLE EAGLE/SPIRIT OF KANAWHA, LIVING WATERS/TRICENTENNIAL BEGINNINGS, ANGELA'S ARK, JOURNEY OF REMEMBRANCE, and others that went directly to museums.  The building schedule depends on financing and labor.  If you are eager for the boat to be built, please consider writing a big check or arranging for a grant or bring your camping gear, work gloves, tools, and safety glasses.

The itinerary might consist of some towns above visited in the Spring of 2009 on the way up the Ohio River.  Then, we might spend the Summer on the Mon River going up to the the Head of Navigation in Fairmont, WV. In the Fall, we would visit the remaining towns on the way downriver.  Please feel free to make suggestions, observations, and questions on any matter.  This is a group effort.  Let us work together and plan ahead!

Those two principles (working together and planning ahead) are the suggestions offered by Alexander Norris to his two sons-in-law, each having had arrived in Cincinnati by flatboat.  Bill was a candle-maker and Jim was a soap-maker.  They took the suggestioons seriously, working together and planning ahead.  Look at the results of the co-operation by considering the size of the company built by Bill Procter and Jim Gamble!  Could we do one-percent as well?