"To Shanty Boats"

Shantyboat Mike's Place
Up Big Bone Creek in Boone County, Kentucky is "Boat Dock Joe's Marina", near there you'll find Shantyboat Mike's place. His custom built shantyboat even has its own towboat to shove it around.

 Shantyboatin' on the Kentucky
This shantyboat was built around 1983 by a local fishermen here in Frankfort on the Kentucky River, below lock and dam #4. It uses Styrofoam blocks for flotation, conventional wood framing and a slightly rounded roof. It is 24' x 12' and has 3' decks fore and aft. A small "john" is built in the corner of the interior cabin but we only use it as decoration as it is not up to code. The second owner put in some really nice cedar paneling and furniture: bed and table. There is an old wood burning oven in there as well, but is fairly inefficient as it has a tiny firebox and leaks pretty bad. Nate Whitaker

Shantyboatin' on the Kentucky
Here Nate told me that he is throwing a fishing net into
the river. My father and I went in halves on her in 2000 and have since purchased another shanty similar to this one but in much worse shape. We plan to get a whole community going. We now own a 50% share of the shantyboat industry in Frankfort and plan to start building a newer shanty this summer.
Nate Whitaker

Shantyboat Mike's Landing at Big Bone
This is the description for the photo that was
used for the header for this page.
Things are getting pretty crowded up on Big Bone Creek at Shantyboat Mike's Landing since we been letting folks know how good old Mike's got it up there on the creek. It seems his shantyboat kin got wind of it all and decided to move in on him. This is a picture he just sent us showing all his kin-folk that now share what was once his private domain.

Photos are courtesy & property of Nate Whitaker.
Some photos are courtesy of Captain Donald J. Sanders.
I would like to thank them both for allowing me to
use the photos on this page to show what a "Shanty
Boat" looks like. 
Suzanne a.k.a. Fiddlinsue

© March 17, 2002