Flatboats

Flatboats were designed to carry cargo downstream by floating with the current, and their flat bottoms made them easy to build in whatever size was needed. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they were a major means of transportation for settlers traveling west into Ohio, Kentucky, and other states, and were often called Kentucky Boats. These boats were usually dismantled when they reached their destination, and the wood was used to build settlers' houses. Even into the late nineteenth century, farmers built them to take produce to market downriver, then sold the boat for lumber after selling the produce and either walked home or returned upriver by steamboat. The design was based on the flatboat used to bring Ohio Company settlers to Marietta in 1788.

Marietta, Ohio · United States