Keelboat highlights story of Lewis & Clark broadcast on C-Span

Director of Education Bill Brecht was interviewed about the construction, history and features of our full-size replica keelboat as part of C-Span’s Books That Shaped America series. The episode covering History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
(1814) premiered on the network Oct. 2. The 90-minute show featured a live interview with Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, author of The Lewis and Clark Companion and Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day Off and Other Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Standing atop the 55-foot keelboat, Brecht explained to videographer Jen Garrott how the boat was custom-fitted for the expedition and its crew of 22 would row, pole or even drag the boat by ropes as they labored against the Missouri River current. He notes a hinged mast for capturing the wind when conditions allowed and storage platforms which allowed the crew to stand higher for poling, or to be raised in defense.

Visitors to the Lewis & Clark Boat House and Museum in St. Charles, MO can see the keelboat and two other full-size boat replicas, called pirogues, and learn much more about the expedition, which left St. Charles in May 1804 and returned in Sept. 1806.