Think Lincoln - Flatboat

This past Sunday I went to the nursing home and picked up Bob for a few hours and I drove down to the waterfront and was surprised to see a flatboat in the Yazoo Diversion Canal tied up to the dock. By reading the paper I found out that a Vicksburg resident Mike Gough went to City Front Sunday afternoon also to receive a special delivery that came down the Ohio and Mississippi from Rockport, Ind., aboard an 1820s style wooden flatboat.

Gough’s distant cousin had sent a letter along with the Lincoln’s Journey of Remembrance crew — which set sail Sept. 9 to trace a trip Abe Lincoln took in 1828. The journey is being taken by the Spencer County, Ind., crew in honor of the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, which will be Feb. 12, 2009.

“It’s the way people often sent letters back then,” said the Evansville, Ind.-native, adding with a chuckle, “but, I did have to keep posted by e-mail about when the letter would be coming.”

The crew of 10 aboard the 60-foot pioneer-era flatboat came ashore in Vicksburg around 1:30 Sunday afternoon, and spent the night in the city before carrying on to Natchez. The journey will wrap up in New Orleans this coming Sunday, at which point Casey McCoy will close out a most interesting internship.

McCoy is playing Lincoln — who was 19 at the time of the 1828 journey — and is receiving credit for his role at Southern Indiana University, where he is a junior studying journalism and marketing. Not many people knew about Lincoln’s pre-presidential life or his voyage to deliver produce for an Indiana merchant.

“It’s been an awesome trip, and it’s so cool to visit with all the people in the different towns we stop at and find out why they came out to see us,” said McCoy, who said he plans on writing a short book about his experience.

Looking every bit like a poor river voyager from the 1800s in his tattered pants and laced-up shirt — except for his Old Navy flip-flops — McCoy noted he, like Lincoln, had never been farther south than Illinois before this trip.

“And I just found out two days ago the flies down here bite,” he said as he swatted at his sun-burned leg.

An information tent was set up by the remembrance crew in front of the murals at City Front to mark the Vicksburg visit, and Vicksburg-area band Bridging The Gap provided old-time and Celtic music for the many who showed up to take a look at the boat and the crew members in period costumes.

“This is really something, and to think of the thousands upon thousands of boats just like this that plied down this river throughout the years is amazing,” said Gough, who brought along his son, Brian, and 2-year-old granddaughter, Ella Ann, to meet the remembrance crew.

To re-create Lincoln’s first-known trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the crew spent two years building a flatboat similar to the vessel Lincoln would have been on 180 years ago. One of the most obvious differences from the original, however, is the twin 150-horse power outboard motors on the back.

It is not the first re-creation of Lincoln’s river run that’s been undertaken. Fifty years ago, in honor of the 16th president’s 150th birthday, the Rockport Jaycees Club built a similar flatboat and sailed it to New Orleans. Bob Grose, now 76, took the trip 50 years ago and was more than happy to be back in Vicksburg on Sunday as part of the remembrance crew.

“This was my favorite city we stopped at on the last trip,” said Grose, a native of Grandview, Ind. “It’s just such a nice city, and the people are very friendly. I hope to bring my kids and grand kids back here someday.

”It took Lincoln three months to make the 1,085-mile trip in 1828, and he was paid $24 for his services. The flatboat he took was most likely dismantled and sold for wood upon his arrival in New Orleans. The remembrance crew will visit 23 riverside cities across eight states before the month long journey is completed. This is a sweetthing!