Uncover the currents of memory
The water carries stories—of resilience, loss, and survival, of those who live at its edges. Like the river, we are shaped by what we carry.
Recent Quick Dispatches
Short dispatches from the river and beyond
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A Freight Train Running Through the Middle of my Head
Shantyboat Dotty posted up under the Krotz Springs RR bridge with raucous freight trains rolling over our heads by just a few feet all night. Both jarring and surprisingly comforting.
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It’s really fucking raining
We’re beached on a remote sandbar just as it begins to rain real good, complete with thunder and lightning. People ask us all the time what do we do when it rains. We make tea!
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The Cats of Krotz (Katz?) Springs
We didn’t see many people in Krotz Springs. But we did see cats. On porches, in tall grass, under trailers. Lounging in the shade or darting behind cars. For every cat we photographed, another vanished the moment we made eye contact—like shadows with whiskers. They weren’t strays. They belonged here. Not to anyone, necessarily, but…
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Gray Man Feels
Gray Man has been a little down lately. We’re trying to talk it out. Late afternoon, feeling more relaxed at nap-thirty.
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Trespassing by boat
Surreal moments in shantyboating: with the high water, we had to boat far inland into someone’s back forty dodging submerged trees to beach Dotty to access a road for a resupply at a Dollar General. Shantyboat Dotty pulled up in someone’s flooded field on our mission to get ice (success!), gas (success!), and sandwiches (unsuccessful).…
Step Aboard and Drift into the Story
What stories does the river hold? Who calls it home? How do we navigate change, memory, and belonging on the water? Step aboard our floating archive and explore the histories, people, and places that make up this journey.
Recent Field Reports
Longer reports from the field
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The Cats of Krotz (Katz?) Springs
We didn’t see many people in Krotz Springs. But we did see cats. On porches, in tall grass, under trailers. Lounging in the shade or darting behind cars. For every cat we photographed, another vanished the moment we made eye contact—like shadows with whiskers. They weren’t strays. They belonged here. Not to anyone, necessarily, but…
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A Night in Simmesport
Why are we sitting in a police station at nearly midnight after two white young men kitted out in military garb pulled rifles on us for allegedly trespassing? Welcome to our small town in southern Louisiana, where tying up to an unmarked riverbank can get you met by armed young men in tactical vests, backed…
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A Day in Simmesport
Just after breakfast, we passed a spot where geography and history tangle like roots underwater. This is where the Red River becomes the Atchafalaya—where a meander of the Mississippi once captured the Red, and later, human hands sliced it back open, inserting control structures to keep the rivers separated, but not disconnected. A crossroads of…
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First miles, first mishaps
We launched. Not on water yet, but we hit the road—and that’s no small thing. The past week was a blur of last-minute repairs, packing lists, untested gear, late-night epoxy sessions, and frantic repainting. There was preventative maintenance and finishing touches, but also some real “hold-your-breath-and-hope” fixes. You know: the fun stuff. We never got…
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Every River Has a Story. Tell Us Yours.
Peoples River Stories is a participatory new media project, a web-based map where anyone can drop a pin and share a memory, confession, observation, dream, or historical fragment about a river they know. It expands the world of Secret History beyond our shantyboat and beyond U.S. borders—inviting people everywhere to claim space for their own…
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Shantyboat Dotty Fleeing Fires
During the California fires we had to flee our home with the Shantyboat Dotty in tow. We made safe camp in a field with neighbors where we created a temporary compound for four adults, one toddler, two dogs, and two kittens.
Follow the River to Its Deeper Currents
What draws us back to the river, year after year? How does the project challenge dominant history? How do river communities respond to change? Explore the deeper ideas that shape our journey.
Meet Our Interviewees
Conversations with people who live and work on the river
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Remembering Betty Goins
Remembering Betty Goins who passed away yesterday. We had the immense pleasure to interview Betty in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2016.
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On a beautiful sunny morning, I interviewed Paul Hassfurder
On a beautiful sunny morning this week after a day and night of thundershowers, I felt honored to interviewed Paul Hassfurder who lives at Payne Hollow. Paul worked with artist and writer Harlan Hubbard at the house for nearly a decade before his death in 1988 at age 88. Paul talked to me about Harlan…
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Interviewing Paul Hassfurder at Payne Hollow surrounded by butterflies
Interviewing Paul Hassfurder at Payne Hollow surrounded by butterflies. #ohioriver #paynehollow #interview #harlanhubbard #harlanandannahubbard #butterfly
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Good homes will be furnished these helpless children
While we were in new Richmond, Ohio, I interviewed Beth Dearwester who told me about several generations of her family who lived aboard a shantyboat in a shantytown at the mouth of Mill Creek in Cincinnati and were considered disreputable riffraff, occasionally charged with fighting, petty theft, and “loitering.” It was common place for children…
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The Seven Wonders of Portsmouth
Post by honorary shipmate Andrew Feight Shanty Dotty on the Ohio, tied up at the Anchor Pad in Portsmouth, Ohio (18 July 2019). Earlier this week I had the pleasure of sitting for an interview with Wes Modes. Funded with a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council, Wes and his two shipmates (production assistants) are…
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The sprawling discussion with Andrew Feight, professor of history at Shawnee State
I had a chance to interview Andrew Feight, professor of history at Shawnee State University. We had a sprawling discussion about the nature of history, who gets to tell it, and whose history gets told. We also talked about Portsmouth history, its role in the Underground Railroad, labor history, and integration, the Shawnee people who…
Trace the Currents of Our Journey
Where did we go? What did we find along the way? Explore interactive maps from our river expeditions and road trips, with every dispatch mapped along the route.
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