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 Benz are navigating the Hudson as part of a project organized by Modes, who teaches art at the University of California at Santa Cruz, called “A Secret History of American River People.” For the past four years, Modes and his shipmates have been collecting stories from people who live and work along rivers.
“Rivers were the freeways of the 18th and 19th century, and ideas moved up the river,” he says. “If you were a river town, you were more cosmopolitan than a town that was a day’s wagon ride 100 miles inland.”
The shanty boat also has traveled the Mississippi, Tennessee and Sacramento rivers. To read the stories collected so far, visit peoplesriverhistory.us.
Here’s an update to your story on A Secret History of American River People as we passed through the Hudson Valley aboard our handmade shantyboat. We were gathering stories and oral histories from river communities, and that stretch of the Hudson — between Kingston and Haverstraw — was a memorable part of the project. Since then, we’ve traveled over 2,600 river miles, collecting more than 160 oral histories from people whose lives are shaped by America’s rivers. This summer, we’re in the Louisiana delta wetlands documenting stories from cypress forests, bayou communities and the heart of Cajun and Creole culture. The stakes are even higher now, as we also navigate the loss of key arts and humanities support. Just wanted to share an update and let you know the project is still alive and evolving.