White Pirogue "Setting Sail" For AppleJack Parade

PLATTSMOUTH – The Cass County Historical Society is setting sail for the AppleJack Festival in Nebraska City with its newly acquired “white pirogue.”

The boat is a replica of one that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had with them when the stopped at the Platte and Missouri rivers confluence on July 21, 1803.

Butch Bouvier constructed the 42-feet -long and eight-feet wide replica over a period of eight months start to finish. The project had its challenges, the builder said.

Bouvier: “I had two heart attacks while I worked on it. Do they count as a challenge?”

Bouvier started building Lewis and Clark replica boats in 1984 as a hobby.

Bouvier:  “Now, I’m considered the authority on Lewis and Clark boats. That’s why I wrote a book about them.”

The book, “Brown Water,” is available at the Nebraska City Lewis and Clark Visitor Center and Cass County Museum in Plattsmouth. Its title derives from the common name for inland waterway boats, “brown-water boats” as opposed to “blue water” coastal and oceanic vessels.

 

 

The White Pirogue was constructed of two layers of ¾-inch plywood.

Historical Society Vice President Del Hervey said it is trimmed in redwood that was procured in the mid-1980s.

Bouvier: “Normally we use cedar, but it’s so expensive, so we trimmed it in redwood.”

Hervey said the boat, complete with hoisted flag and mast, will be in the 51^st Applejack Parade 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21.