Early Alaskan Riverboats

Early Alaskan Riverboats. Long, Narrow and Efficient. , This is a typical riverboat of the early and mid-1900's. The long, narrow shape is fashioned after the early pole boats. It is a non-planing displacement design that can carry large loads with minimal power and easily push against the swift Tanana and Yukon Rivers. The Johnson 22 horsepower outboard motor is mounted on a "lift" that can raise the motor up while in shallow water. Native families would use these riverboats for long hunting trips and for travel between villages and fish camps. Thier [sic] earliest boats were built with hand-sawn planks and then by the 1940's plywood became available., This boat was built by "Canuck" Killen in 1962 in Bettles, Alaska on the Koyukuk River. The bottom was built using two sheets of 3/8 in. by 16 ft. marine plywood making it 32 ft. long and just 34 in. at the widest spot, mid ship. The sides are 1/4 in. plywood flared out to 45°. The hull is covered with a thin layer of fiber glass. He built the lift using lightweight tubing from a wrecked bush plane. In the 60's Killen took this boat on a hunting trip up the John River in the Brooks Range with five men and all their gear. They returned to Bettles with four moose and two sheep, a total load of four to five thousand pounds, all being pushed by a 14 horsepower Evinrude motor. Years later Killen cut three feet off the stern, built a new transom and mounted a high horsepower, jet drive outboard motor. It proved unsuccessful and inefficient. He remounted the lift and went back to a small prop drive motor on the now 29 ft. boat. For decades Killen would pass the Riverboat Discovery vessels with this boat on his way to Fouts Airstrip where he kept his Piper float plane. He and his wife Nellie still live in their log home on the Chena River, just upstream from Steamboat Landing., Displayed here is a vintage 1949 Johnson 22 horsepower motor. It has been restored to its original operating condition. These were popular motors in the villages in the 40's and 50's and had enough power to easily push a fish wheel upstream. They are self-contained with a 2.5 gallon gas tank, twist grip throttle, rope start and a manual spark advance., Pictured at left [bottom photo] is the first manufactured aluminum boat, a DuraCraft, owned by the Binkley family circa 1960. This is a "Jon boat" style planing hull that eventually replaced the old, long and narrow displacement boats. Binkley Captains Skip, Jim and John all learned to run the rivers in this boat, starting with the legendary Johnson 22 motor., [Top photo caption reads] Killen's boat in it's original form, [Bottom photo caption reads] The Binkley's DuraCraft in the 1960's