Information Panel: My Favorite Boat

Quick Facts

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

The metal boat frame to your right is a replica of a collapsible boat built here for Lewis and Clark. Meriwether Lewis came to the armory in 1803 to prepare for an epic, cross-continent journey and oversee the construction and testing of the boat. Lewis successfully tested it in the nearby Potomac River. Unfortunately the boat failed them in the wild. Lewis wrote "She leaked in such manner that she would not answer...I relinquished all further hope of my favorite boat." He ordered his men to dig a cache and bury the frame along a Missouri River bank. The original boat frame has never been found.