What Is This Boat?

What Is This Boat?. . , The boat displayed here belonged to the last fleet of wooden boats used for the highly popular scenic boat tour of Ausable Chasm [Aw-SAY-bull Kaz-'m], enjoyed by millions of people since it began in 1873. Then, as now, the boat tour starts about 1 mile (1.6 km) down the Chasm from here, at "Table Rock, ” and covers the navigable waters of the Chasm's second half. , , From 1873 to 1996, the Chasm used wooden boats of various sizes designed like this one for its "Boat Ride.” During that time, guests walked the first half of the 2-mile (3.2 km) long Chasm, then saw the lower half by boat. Guides called "Boatmen” piloted the boats, steering expertly between the Chasm's towering sandstone walls and "shooting” mild rapids. , After 1996, the Chasm retired the wooden boats, switching in 1997 to custom heavy duty rafts. Two acts of nature, the great Ausable River floods of January and November 1996, prompted this change. In November, 60-foot-high floodwaters wrecked the motorized cable system that hauled the boats back upriver to Table Rock after each ride. The classic Boat Ride became a "raft ride," now called the "Float Tour." , , In fall 2015, this boat, stored in our boathouse since 1996, was moved here for public view. The boat, and accompanying display, highlights the history and legacy of the Chasm's "wooden boat era.” It honors the boatmen of long ago and the more recent past who ran the Boat Ride operation. , , "Entering one of the long pointed boats, with a boatman at either end to guide and steer us, we embark upon that part of our trip through the Chasm which is generally known as the Boat Ride. , , No sound may be heard but the dip of the paddle echoing back with a hollow sound from the hard, straight rocks above, and it is with somewhat of a feeling of quiet awe we float along on our weird ride over unknown depths below." , (Ausable Chasm guidebook, circa 1900)