Recent Coverage
We don’t know if you know this, but we’re a big deal in Clinton, Iowa
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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 Americaâs 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/DocÂuÂmenÂtarÂian/ Shanty Boater
Armed with a homeÂmade shanty boat and a video camÂera, Wes Modes has spent the last few years floatÂing down rivers big and small, all for his unique project: âA Secret History of AmerÂiÂcan River PeoÂple.â
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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 peopleâs relationships to rivers is a deeply powerful form of social practiceâan 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 Americaâs 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 Hubbardâs 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 â 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…
Photos
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