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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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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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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…
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Marietta Times: Shantyboat historian spends time in Marietta
“It is so cool to be in that space, gathering that storytelling,â she said. âI 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.â
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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 Modesâ 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: âShanty Boatâ 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. â 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 âriver peopleâ 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 Americaâs 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 Americaâs 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 nationâs 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 Americaâs rivers. He takes us along on his voyage down Californiaâs 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 Journal by Rochel Leah Goldblatt [KGVID title=””]https://peoplesriverhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/28911775001_5811811674001_5811813003001.mp4[/KGVID] 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…
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The Daily Freeman: Shanty boat crew, docking in Kingston, gathers disappearing history of nationâs 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 nationâs major rivers became arteries of life flowing through the American landscape. Modes, an…
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Post-Star: Shantyboat docks in Fort Edward to collect Hudson River stories
Post-Star by Gwendolyn Craig FORT EDWARD â Itâs 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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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, âWhat is art?â 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 âShanty Boatâ documenting Florence residents
Itâs 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 âA Secret History of American River People.â 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 Riverâs 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 itâs story. But you can only learn so much, standing on the shore. If youâve 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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TVA bans new floating homes, but allows existing homes to stay
Since the 1950s, floating homes on the water have been an endangered species in the US. With the exception of those on city- or county-owned waters, boathouses are all but extinct on the Mississippi River. On Tennessee Valley Authority controlled waters in the Tennessee River watershed, floating homes are also endangered.
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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
âWhat the hell have I gotten myself into?â is all I can think as I prepare to board the shantyboat Dotty. This thing doesnât even look like it could float, much less survive a 652-mile trek down the Tennessee River.
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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 â 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…