Press
Where the project has been seen and spoken about—articles, interviews, and features that trace its path through media and public imagination.
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Cabin Porn: Shantyboat
The Rivers of North America By Zach Klein, Freda MoonContributed by Wes Modes Photographs by Wes Modes, Bredette Dyer, Jeremiah Daniels At first glance, Wes Modes is an unlikely candidate for the role of modern-day hobo. For three-quarters of the year, the fifty-three-year-old is a university professor in Santa Cruz, an affluent California beach town,…
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That Was Weird: Rediscovering The River
Join Archives & Collections Catalyst, Marla Novo, and Abbott Square Music Coordinator, Gabriel Kittle-Cervine, for ‘That Was Weird: Stories from Santa Cruz’, a fresh take on Santa Cruz History with the MAH’s first ever podcast. This month, we sat down with Wes Modes, a local artist, activist, and community member with a great care and…
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Atlas Obscura: An Artist, a Shantyboat, and the Lost History of American River Communities
Wes Modes is documenting life along America’s waterways. Atlas ObscuraBy Jonathan CareyMarch 7, 2019 THE RIVERS OF THE UNITED States have a certain lore and mystique within American culture. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these roaring waterways were home to thousands. Entire communities existed on or near the water in self-made houseboats. The…
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Boating: Wes Modes, Artist/Documentarian/ Shanty Boater
Armed with a homemade shanty boat and a video camera, Wes Modes has spent the last few years floating down rivers big and small, all for his unique project: “A Secret History of American River People.”
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First Friday Santa Cruz: Secret History Project Tells Untold Stories of the San Lorenzo River
For local artist Wes Modes, this process of finding and sharing the stories of people’s relationships to rivers is a deeply powerful form of social practice—an art form that creates change through human interaction and conversation.
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HeraldWeekly: The Lost History of American River Communities, Revisited by an Artist in a Shantyboat
HeraldWeeklyby Mark Villanueva Wes Modes is documenting life along America’s waterways. American rivers used to be home to thousands of people, particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Families lived close to these silvery channels, traded, thrived, as chronicled initially by Harlan Hubbard’s Shantyboat Journal. These communities are mostly gone now, but the mystery of…
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Portsmouth Daily-Times: American River People
Portsmouth Daily-Timesby Ivy Potter Several artists have made their way to Portsmouth, courtesy of their rustic recreated shantyboat, to gather information and personal histories of those living along the Ohio River. The Secret History of American River People, the name of the project, operates to build a collection of personal stories of people who live…
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Gallipolis Daily Tribune: Shantyboaters seek river people secrets
Gallipolis Daily Tribuneby Dean Wright GALLIPOLIS — A trio of shantyboaters landed in Gallipolis Tuesday to speak with locals about the life and culture of the region as they continued a journey from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and on through Louisville, Kentucky, on the Ohio River. Jeremiah Daniels, Wes Modes and Adrian Nankivell are three companions floating…
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Clutch MOV: A Secret History of American River People
Clutch MOVby Sarah Arnold Though once abundant along the shores of the Ohio River, shantyboats are no longer a common sight. These small, crude houseboats were often built and lived in by itinerant workers, miners, dockworkers, and displaced agricultural workers during the late 19th century and into the 1940s, but largely disappeared from river life after…
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Marietta Times: Shantyboat historian spends time in Marietta
“It is so cool to be in that space, gathering that storytelling,” she said. “I knew a tiny bit about it before this, from the exhibit at the Ohio River Museum. It makes you realize that the river at one time was just thick with boats like that.”
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A shantyboat trip down the Ohio
A video created by Post-Gazette staff photographer Andrew Rush.
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Collecting, making history on the Ohio River
Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteby Christian Snyder When Wes Modes arrived in Pittsburgh, it had been raining nearly every day. But by the time Modes’ homemade shantyboat dips into the water Tuesday, the summer sun shines with a blinding glare. Dotty, as the shantyboat is called, is parked at the Brilliant Boat Club on the Allegheny River in…
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WTRF: “Shanty Boat” sails away today in Moundsville
According to Wes Modes, the project hopes to uncover the social and economic impacts that river people have had on their local communities and beyond.
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Wheeling News-Register: California researcher travels Ohio River in shantyboat to learn about river life
The Intelligencer, Wheeling News-Registerby Mike Jones WHEELING, W.Va. – Wes Modes was stunned by the scenic beauty of the Ohio River as he floated down the waterway in his shantyboat this week on the first leg of a 600-mile voyage from Pittsburgh to Louisville as he collects personal stories from “river people” along the way.…
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: California artist will capture life on the Ohio River in a homemade shantyboat
Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteby Christian Snyder Backyards tell stories, Wes Modes says, and Modes is willing to listen while floating by on what looks like a hut on a raft. On Wednesday, the California-based artist will set off on a shantyboat from the head of the Ohio River to explore the communities along the more than 950-mile…
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Marietta Times: Artist will stop in Marietta on Ohio River journey
The culture of people who have grown up and lived on the banks of America’s great rivers has largely been left out of history, and Wes Modes has set out to share them.
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Insider Louisville: Exhibit on America’s river heritage finds berth at Portland Museum
Ahead of a shantyboat trip down the Ohio River this summer, California artist Wes Modes will open a window onto the history and culture of the nation’s rivers on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Portland Museum.
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Small Boats: River People – Shantyboat on the Sacramento River
Wes Modes spent two years building a shantyboat using salvaged materials and in 2014 he began voyaging America’s rivers. He takes us along on his voyage down California’s Sacramento river.
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Highlands Current: Shanty on the River
Highlands Current By Ross Corsair Wes Modes and Lauren Benz, accompanied by Hazel the dog, are sailing down the Hudson River to New York City aboard a shanty boat. We caught up with them on July 15 in Kingston, a few days before they passed the Highlands to dock in Haverstraw, opposite Croton. Modes and…
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Rockland/Westchester Journal: A shanty in Haverstraw: A floating art project explores the lives and history of ‘river people’
Rockland/Westchester Journalby Rochel Leah Goldblatt HAVERSTRAW – Wes Modes stood on the bow of his shanty as it bobbed gently at Admirals Cove Marina on Friday morning, a cup of coffee in a mason jar and his four-legged companion, Hazel, at his side. Modes, a Santa Cruz artist and lecturer at two California universities, arrived in…
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The Daily Freeman: Shanty boat crew, docking in Kingston, gathers disappearing history of nation’s river people
The Daily Freeman by William J. Kemble KINGSTON, N.Y. >> The Hudson River is the fourth leg of a journey by Wes Modes and his shanty boat crew mates, who have spent the past four years gathering stories of how the nation’s major rivers became arteries of life flowing through the American landscape. Modes, an…
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The Saratogian: Steamboat Meet brings ships, tales to Waterford
The Saratogian By Joseph Phelan WATERFORD, N.Y. >> Over the past five years Wes Modes has explored river life in the South, the Midwest and his resident West Coast, discovering stories that shape America. Modes and his shipmate, Benzy, found themselves in Waterford on Saturday at the annual Steamboat Meet at the harbor, adding stories…
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Gathering the Untold Stories of Vanishing Hudson River People
A rustic recreated mid-century shanty boat, a daring river voyage on New York’s historic Hudson River, and a meticulous archive of river stories are all part of a compelling art and history project, “A Secret History of American River People.” The journeys are part of a larger effort that spans many years and covers multiple…
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WAMC Albany: Searching For Hudson River Stories On A Shanty Boat
WAMC Public RadioBy Lucas Willard Listen Now to the WAMC Public Radio story: A recreated mid-century shanty boat is traveling down the Hudson River in search of stories. “A Secret History of American River People” is a project by a California-based artist Wes Modes. Modes took WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard…
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Post-Star: Shantyboat docks in Fort Edward to collect Hudson River stories
Post-Star by Gwendolyn Craig FORT EDWARD — It’s not every day that one might see a shantyboat floating down the Hudson River, but many people did Sunday around the Fort Edward Yacht Basin. Wes Modes, shantyboat maker, artist, story collector and captain, opened his floating home to the public, helping kick off part of the World Awareness…
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Santa Cruz Sentinel: “A Secret History” at Ebb & Flow River Arts Festival
Artist Wes Modes leaned against his shantyboat’s helm by the wooden dinette and his dog, Hazel, while he distributed free postcard photos of the 1940s-style vessel’s journeys on U.S. rivers.
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BBC Outlook – Building my own ‘shanty boat’
Wes Modes has spent the last few summers sailing along the great rivers of north America, collecting stories from the people who live on their banks. Wes travels in his homemade houseboat – or shanty boat – called Dotty.
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BBC Between The Ears – The Shanty Boat
In a rich tapestry of watery atmosphere, frustration, intimacy, fear and pleasure, we hear a slipping, sliding adventure, where the smell of pancakes, the slap of water and the smoke of cigars wafts over the waters of Americas great rivers.
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A Secret History of American River People in Sacramento
The Sacramento History Museum is proud to present a compelling new exhibit titled A Secret History of American River People opening on Saturday, July 1, 2017. The special art and history project is part of a larger effort that spans many years and covers multiple rivers.
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Fair Companies: How shantyboats down the Mississippi helped build a culture
Long before Wes Modes began planning a journey down the Mississippi, he started building a traditional barge-bottom houseboat in a California backyard out of rustic reclaimed materials (e.g. old fences and chicken coops). Once his shantyboat was complete he hatched a plan to transport it across the country from Santa Cruz to Minnesota to begin…
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Laughing Squid: Artist Rides Rivers in a Homemade Shantyboat to Learn About the People Who Live on the Banks
Wes Modes, an artist and lecturing professor at UC Santa Cruz and a crew full of creative mates built a shanty boat out of found materials and trash and rode down both the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River over the course of the past two summers.
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Tribune-Courier: Floating Artist
In general, when people are posed with the question, ‘What is art?’ the answers align with ideas of paintings created by the greats like Vincent Van Gogh or fantastic photographs that capture space and time in unique ways like the work of Ansel Adams. The answer might vary a bit and turn into a deep…
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Paduca Sun: Artist-in-residence Modes slated to discuss journey of shantyboat
Paducah Arts Alliance artist-in-residence Wes Modes and his 1940s-era shantyboat landed recently in Paducah for two weeks to discuss his ongoing project, “A Secret History of American River People.”
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AL.com: On a shantyboat in Alabama, nights are hot, food is good and stories flow
Smack dab in the middle of the Tennessee River, between the O’Neal Bridge stretching from Muscle Shoals into Florence and TVA’s Wilson Dam, a recreated relic of river history is stuck like a catfish on a line, its anchor snagged on God only knows what at the bottom of the river.
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Paducah WPSD: Secret History of River People coming to Paducah
The River Discovery Center in Paducah will host an exhibit including a 1940s shantyboat starting Friday.
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West Kentucky Star: Artist Concludes Daring River Voyage in Paducah
A rustic recreated 1940s shanty boat, a daring river voyage, and a meticulous archive of river stories are all part of a multi-year art and history project, “A Secret History of American River People.” Santa Cruz, California artist Wes Modes is currently floating his homemade houseboat on the historic Tennessee River.
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Alabama WHNT: California man lives on a ‘Shanty Boat’ documenting Florence residents
It’s one of the oddest sights you might see on the river this summer. Making its way through the Florence Harbor on Friday, Wes Modes captains his hand-made vessel.
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Times Daily: Telling secrets: California artist gathers river stories from a shanty
Times Daily By Monica Collier For four days, Friday through Monday, the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts and Florence Harbor and Marina will host Wes Modes and “A Secret History of American River People.” Modes, an artist and oral historian from Santa Cruz, California, has been traveling American rivers in a 1940s era recreated shanty…
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Florence Courier-Journal: The River’s Life and People
A rustic recreated 1940s shanty boat, a daring river voyage, and a meticulous archive of river stories are all part of a multi-year art and history project, A Secret History of American River People. Santa Cruz, California artist Wes Modes is currently floating his homemade houseboat down the historic Tennessee River.
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WAFF Huntsville: Shanty floating down the TN seeking hidden histories of river people
Get close enough to the Tennessee river, you can hear it’s story. But you can only learn so much, standing on the shore. If you’ve been on the banks the past week in North Alabama, you may have noticed a tiny shack floating down the river. No matter what you may think about the odd…
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WVLT Knoxville: Shanty boat tours America’s rivers via Knoxville
It’s a hot summer day on Knoxville’s Volunteer Landing and an old mountain shack rolls up to the dock. Right out of the Beverly Hillbillies.
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UK DailyMail: Could you live on a ‘shantyboat’? Artist calls this tiny homemade floating shack home as he journeys around the Tennessee River
A homemade ‘shanty boat’ is currently floating down the Tennessee River through Alabama to remind Americans of their ‘forgotten history’.
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Huntsville Times: Fishing For Stories
Artist cruises into Huntsville today (or tomorrow) on a shantyboat river journey. The boat was built by California-based artist Wes Modes, who is traveling America’s rivers to document the stories and history of people who live and work along the rivers. And he’d love to know who he should talk to.
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Guntersville Gleam: He’s running the river in a shanty boat
Guntersville Advertiser-Gleamby Joe Cagle People in Guntersville are used to seeing the same sort of traffic coming in and out of the city harbor. The occasional pontoon boat, a bass boat or even a Guntersville Police boat are the norm, with big yachts sometimes visiting. But a very different kind of boat pulled into the…
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![Knoxville Mercury: Life Aboard the Shantyboat Dotty [SLIDESHOW]](https://peoplesriverhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/shanty-boat-wes-modes-1910.jpg)
Knoxville Mercury: Life Aboard the Shantyboat Dotty [SLIDESHOW]
Knoxville Mercury By Clay Duda [metaslider id=5031]
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Knoxville Mercury: Shanty Dreams: A Quest for the Forgotten Stories of the Tennessee River
“What the hell have I gotten myself into?” is all I can think as I prepare to board the shantyboat Dotty. This thing doesn’t even look like it could float, much less survive a 652-mile trek down the Tennessee River.
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Artist on Tennessee River Journey to Gather Stories
California artist collecting stories of river people HI-RES PHOTOS AVAILABLE: Click Here A rustic recreated 1940s shantyboat, a daring river voyage, and a meticulous archive of river stories are all part of a multi-year art and history project, A Secret History of American River People. Santa Cruz artist Wes Modes is currently floating his homemade…
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Chattanooga Times Free Press: Rollin’ on the River: Artist heading down Tennessee River, documenting the lives of river people
Life on America’s vast rivers always fascinated Wes Modes. As a youth, Mark Twain’s Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and Harland Hubbard’s “Shantyboat Journal” filled him with a desire to experience and document life on the river.
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Chattanooga Times Free Press: Man and dog to explore Tennessee River on self-made shantyboat
Shantyboat stops along the Tennessee River As of print, the shantyboat was scheduled to hold official exhibitions in the following cities. More stops are sure to be added along the way — including one in Chattanooga which Modes says should be in mid-July. To learn more, visit peoplesriverhistory.org/exhibit. Aug. 5-8: Kennedy Douglas Center for the…
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Knoxville News Sentinel: California artist launches 652-mile Tennessee River trip from Volunteer Landing
Docked at Volunteer Landing at Knoxville’s downtown waterfront this week is a 20-foot “shantyboat” that looks all the world like a backwoods cabin perched atop a barge.
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Knoxville Mercury: Artist to Launch in Knoxville, Collect Stories of ‘River People’ along the Tennessee
Over the past couple of years California-based artist Wes Modes has been piloting his 1940’s shanty boat up and down U.S. waterways with one expressed purpose: to collect and archive the stories of those he has dubbed “river people,” the eclectic cast of folks, like scientists, historians, other shanty boaters, and locals living along side…
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California Artist Launches Tennessee River Expedition on Homemade Shantyboat
Artist raising funds for journey to collect stories of river people. A rustic recreated 1940s shantyboat, a daring river voyage, and a meticulous archive of river stories are all part of a multi-year art and history project, A Secret History of American River People. Santa Cruz artist Wes Modes is fundraising for this year’s expedition…
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UCSC: LASER talk to spotlight research on pumas, filmmaking, river people, and ancient DNA
Over the last few summers, inspired by historical accounts of shantyboaters on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, he set out on a series of journeys to record the lost histories of river communities. The goal of his project, “A Secret History of American River People,” is to build a collection of personal stories of people…
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Minnesota Post: The 5 standout public art works of 2015
Everything on this list broadly fits into the category of “public art,” at least in terms of each of them being an artistic project you might find walking around the Twin Cities in 2015. It’s not comprehensive, but it’s a short list of things I saw – or, OK, heard about and then saw on…
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New Orleans Advocate: Researchers trace Mississippi River, listening and recording every trickle, gurgle and swoosh
Outside Guttenberg, Iowa, they met Wes Modes, who invited them aboard his Shantyboat, a kind of floating cabin built like those historically used by itinerant workers, miners, dockworkers and farmers. Sleeping on the bow, they listened to river sounds while towing the ORB behind, recording through the hydrophone. Occasionally, they docked, allowing random curiosity-seekers to…
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Muscatine Journal: California artist stops in Muscatine on river odyssey
Wes Modes, Santa Cruz, California, is on the second leg of a trip down the Mississippi River collecting stories of river life and the people who live along the river. His shanty boat has a sleeping loft, small galley kitchen, library, and toilet. He been traveling for nearly three months and is hoping to reach…
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Open Rivers: Knowing the Mississippi
We asked a diverse group of river people to respond to the prompt “How did you come to know the Mississippi River? What does it mean, to you, to know the Mississippi River?” We present below a few of the responses, in no particular order.
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Quad-City Times: California artist travels Mississippi for ‘river people’ project
If you happen to see Wes Modes, 48, of Santa Cruz, Calif., and his dog, Hazel, floating around the Quad-Cities, stop and have a chat. He’d love that. And you might become part of Mississippi River history through his “Secret History of American River People” art project. Modes, 48, is traveling through the Quad-City area…
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Secret History on the front page of the Clinton Herald
Secret History on the front page of the Clinton Herald with @justlikeharmony. #Shantyboat #smalltownfamous #frontpage #art #river
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International Sculpture Center: Wes Modes: Secret History of American River People
The Mississippi River runs deep through American culture. From early Native Americans to Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Blues and Hurrican Katrina, the history of the country is in constant flux, much like the river itself. The fascination with the mysteries and power of the world’s fourth longest river is subtle, but…
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Waukon Standard: California artist seeking stories of river history, lifestyles
A rustic recreated 1940s shantyboat, a daring river voyage, and a meticulous archive of river stories are all part of a multi-year art and history project being undertaken by artist Wes Modes of Santa Cruz, CA and entitled “A Secret History of American River People.” Modes set sail last summer on the Mississippi River to…
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Heartland Boating: A Secret History of American River People
Ten years ago, Wes Modes of Santa Cruz, California, was reading about a group of kids who were making whacky, homemade boats and then cruising them down the Mississippi River. That type of adventure resonated with Modes, a computer programmer and artist with a love of the water and an appreciation for the lyrical qualities…
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Minneapolis City Pages: River City Revue explores Mississippi culture
The event gives you a chance to see the art shanty boat created by Wes Modes. Last year Modes, who is an MFA student at the University of California, took his boat on a trip down the Mississippi, collecting stories of how people live on the river.
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StarTribune: Pictures of the day.
Top Photos for June 30. Kara Yorkhall and daughter Juliette,3, stepped unto the back deck after chatting with captain/artist Wes Modes who will traveling on the Missississippi for the next three months or so. At the Minnesota Center, gathered on a 1940’s shantyboat on display as part of “A Secret History of American River People”…
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Dubuque Telegraph Herald: River exhibition will dock in Dubuque
A rustic shanty boat, a daring river voyage and a meticulous archive of river stories encompassing a multi-year art and history project. It might sound like something out of the fictitious works of Mark Twain. But for California artist Wes Modes, it has been his reality for the past year-and-a-half.
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Artist On Art: Wes Modes, Artist Interview
Artist Activist, Wes Modes came onto Artists on Art, June 18, 2014, to talk about his newest project, The Secret History of American River People, a slow meandering trip down the Mississippi in a shanty boat collecting stories. Using audio, video, and digital media, Secret History archives and presents oral histories of major American rivers,…
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1 Mississippi: Reeling in River Stories
What would you do with a houseboat the size of an office cubicle? Well, if you’re itinerant artist and general river enthusiast, Wes Modes, you embark on a multi-month journey down the Mississippi River. I had the pleasure of meeting Wes at the first River City Revue of the summer. Wes and his trusty companion,…
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Reddit: I am an artist spending the summer in a shantyboat on the Mississippi River gathering stories of river people. AMA!
I am Wes Modes, DIY boater and artist. For years I’ve been building DIY boats, often out of trash, and floating down major American rivers. Last year, we put our homemade untested houseboat in the Misssissippi River for a month to gather stories of river people (with my ex-sweetheart at ship’s mate). When we did…
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Santa Cruz Sentinel: Artist turns a journey down the Mississippi into rich oral history
We’re all sharing our “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” anecdotes around the metaphorical water cooler this time of year. Long-time Santa Cruz artist and activist Wes Modes has his story too, though it might sound to many ears as if the summer vacation he’s talking about is the summer of 1881. Modes launched an…
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![Small and Not So Small Town Press [Updated]](https://peoplesriverhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/5D3_0978_0-672x372.jpg)
Small and Not So Small Town Press [Updated]
We’ve done our best to try to let people know we are coming downriver. Some of the local press have picked up our story.
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La Crosse WXOW: 2 art students take journey in shantyboat on Mississippi
Two art students from California are traveling down the Mississippi River this month in a one of a kind boat, while working on a project called Secret History of the American River People.Wes Modes and Kai Dalgleish are both masters art students at the University of California Santa Cruz, floating down the river in a…
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La Crosse Tribune: Artist plies Mississippi in Shantyboat to net historical portraits
California-based artists Wes Modes and Kai Dalgleish are traveling down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to Davenport, Iowa, collecting oral histories and stories of river people. Modes, a grad student at University of California Santa Cruz, is doing the project for his master’s thesis. The Shantyboat, built largely from salvage from a chicken coop, is…
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Winona Post: History afloat down the river
It is August on Latsch Island, that beautiful time of year when everything moves a little slower, from the water that laps up the sides of boathouses, to the mellow hum of nearby cicadas. Inside a small shanty boat anchored off a sandy plot of land beside the Wagon Bridge, two people sit relaxed at…
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Minneapolis Star Tribune: Shantyboat heads down the Mississippi, gathering stories
The Mississippi River has changed in many ways over the past century, becoming cleaner, less industrial and less economically essential. But there are still places where the banks are lined with houseboats. “There’s folks who are river rats who’ve had their own river-rafting journeys starting in Minneapolis. Many of them have floated all the way…
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Hastings Star Gazette: California artist in shantyboat stops in Hastings during Mississippi River tour
Hastings Star Gazette/Pierce County Herald by Chad Richardson It’s not uncommon to see boats moored on the public dock in Hastings. There’s not much common about the boat that Wes Modes and Kai Dalgleish are traveling in, though. Their unique boat, which was parked in Hastings on July 30 and July 31, drew all kinds of…
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Reddit: I am an artist who hopes you don’t read about my death when we launch our homemade (and untested) shantyboat on the Mississippi River AMA!
For years I’ve been building DIY boats, often out of trash, and floating down major American rivers. This year, we’re launching the shantyboat we’ve been working on for two years on the Upper Mississippi River on an “anthro-historical journey to uncover the lost narratives of river people, river communities, and the river itself,” part of…