Barge / Keelboat (replica)

The Lewis and Clark Expedition barge and keelboat was fifty-five feet long and eight feet four inches wide, and when loaded with an estimated twelve to fifteen tons of supplies it drew two to two and a half feet of water. The weight of the historic evidence indicates that it was built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was used on the expedition until the party reached the Mandan Villages in what is now North Dakota in November 1804. After spending the winter of 1804–05 frozen in the ice of the Missouri, it was loaded with scientific specimens and sent back down the river to Saint Louis with a crew of twelve men. What happened to the barge and keelboat after its return to Saint Louis is unknown.

Nebraska City, Nebraska · United States