Boats and bones

Time has gotten away from me. Actually, I’ve been looking for the perfect tool for creating this project, partly because I don’t want to build a tool. That doesn’t mean I have not been researching boats…and bones, and beaches, and how we have evolved since the first boat touched what eventually became known as the United States of America. I struggled enormously with that last sentence.

As I write this, I believe the oldest I have documented was a vessel that sailed in 1711. I don’t know definitely because this project is massive and I have been looking for a decent tool for managing all of “this.”

I haven’t even looked at This for weeks. I like WordPress. In fact, during my life, I have created numerous WordPress sites. I have also created and managed a whole lot of Microsoft Access databases. Add tags and categories, and WordPress is a database. Access™ is not a practical solution, especially not among people who might want to learn more about one boat. Just one. I suspect that is more accurate than any speculation I might have about how many people want to know the name of the boat great-grandpa took on the Androscoggin River.

I was totally naïve when I started this project. I moved to the shores, figurately speaking, of a river. Certainly a large river, in terms of width and breadth. But, not the Mississippi. I continue to store my files in a folder, on an external drive, bearing the original project name: Beaches.  

Why? Because even as I write this, I don’t have access to the internet. I live in a castle (yes, I said a castle) in a small midwestern town. The internet in this former hotel is outdated and has to be replaced. Were it not for the Personal Hotspot on my phone, I would not have access to the internet, at the moment—and probably for several more weeks.

I did begin by identifying all the named beaches along this one river. “Named,” for my purposes, meant literally named. Some were named by local residents, and might not have ever appeared on a map.

What is a map? All of the United States of America was a non-English speaking country. All of it. Native Americans created the original maps, which were then labeled and translated and fine-tuned by French, English, Spanish…and anyone else who could figure out how to step across some pretty large ponds.

Then I focused on boats that touched, or traversed, this one river. That was the limit of my curiosity partly because I know nothing about boats. I know the Julia Belle Swain was pretty. I have been aboard less than half a dozen boats in my life, including speedboats.

I immediately realized that no boats ever spent their entire lives on one river. The whole point for the existence of a boat is to go somewhere, and that invariably means leaving one river to go somewhere else.

I will use “almost” in quotes, as in I declare that “almost” no boat has existed exclusively on one waterway. Already, river has evolved into waterway, for me. This whole project is nearly as fluid as water. And sometimes as hard as ice.

But, back to the Almost. Early on in the history of the portion of North America currently (7 October 2025) known as the United States of America, boat construction scaled up. Boat construction became big business in certain cities designing and building boats that were then moved to waterways across the country, and beyond. Why use the word waterways? Because from the very early history of this country, there were manmade canals, natural and manmade lakes, and the like.

It is almost impossible to identify a Mississippi River boat that was a) built on that river; b) sailed exclusively on that river, never leaving her waters, even during certain parts of the year to adjust to the seasons, or to undergo repair or to provide government service; and c) remained in that river after she was decommissioned.

Along the way, I learned there are numerous types of boats. Many types of boats.

Then I discovered how easy it is to identify what any given boat was transporting. I don’t know when things changed and am not especially interested identifying the date, but I would speculate that it might have been World War I. But, there was a time when everyone knew what was being sold, shipped, and offered for sale thanks to a very simple tool: newspapers. Yes, the entire manifest was published in newspapers, announcing what merchandise was arriving, and who was importing it. By name. By item.

I’m so thankful. It tells us who we are, or were.

I have always had an armchair interest in genealogy. I don’t live far from the Trail of Tears, although far enough that I have never visited it. My own family’s lore insists that probably my maternal as well as my paternal ancestors escaped during the long trek, on foot, of the Trail of Tears.

I have long been aware that many Native Americans died from smallpox, and chickenpox and that it was likely contracted through blankets, perhaps shipped by river, and given to tribes. It was not until perhaps the past year that I learned some Native Americans were relocated on steamboats. On at least one occasion, it wasn’t discovered until afterward that there was a contagion aboard the boat, including the non-Native American passengers, along with random travelers or perhaps the crew. For many members of a cohesive group, such as a tribe with quite possibly some family ties, an outbreak would have been devastating. It would have been mothers, fathers, children….

I didn’t know. I did not know that some Native Americans were relocated aboard steamboats. How did I not know that?

Steamboats and Paddlewheels

Steamers and paddlewheels have largely been relegated to the halls of time: they are memories or, at best, novelties, of a former era. Renovated boats or flat-out replicas still ply the waters, across the US and offer cruises or excursions. They are for pleasure.

But, we have largely been left with a rosy and faulty memory that belies that relocation of Native Americans, slaves, indentured servants, and prisoners. We forget, if we even knew, that river oysters were a delicacy at the same time that oyster populations were depleted so that wealthier people could decorate their clothes with pearl buttons. Even the poorest of the poor, who lived in tents on the shore or on makeshift floating houses could, to a certain extent, feed themselves on oysters.

The environment has changed. The oyster population has changed, with zebra mussels impacting  numerous waterways.

A few years ago, I participated in a Citizen Scientist program in the Midwest, counting the zebra mussel population. It’s just one of the impacts of humans on American (and other) waterways.

Next up? Who has attempted the Boats and Bones project before?

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