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Historic Shanty Boat Added To Ohio River Museum
By: WOUB Staff Writer
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A historic shanty boat will go on display at the Ohio River Museum in Marietta after getting some renovation work done.
The boats, that were once used as floating mobile homes or businesses, were banned in Marietta during the 1920s and 1930s.
The boat was donated to the museum for display.
Bill Reynolds from the Ohio River Museum was impressed with this find because the boat may be one of a kind.
"This could very possibly be the oldest surviving shanty boat on the inland river system. We think it dates somewhere between 1920 and the early 1930s. We don't know exactly," says Reynolds.
The river museum is already home to the nearly 100-year-old, steam-powered, towboat, the W.P. Snyder Jr.
Reynolds says this shanty boat will tell a different part of the story of life on the river.
It'll give kind of the story of our river history that doesn't exist anymore. When people live on the boats on the river now, they live on cruisers or house boats, things like that. It will be kind of that story of what is it like to live on a river in a shanty boat," says Reynolds.
The Ohio River Museum hopes to eventually open an exhibit allowing visitors to tour the inside and outside of the shanty boat.