BCJ News

Late July my wife Sherry and I stopped in Fort Benton on our way home from Great Falls. After walking along the river downtown we drove north along the highway (MT 387) that passes by Shep’s grave and the airport, then accesses US 87 northeast of Fort Benton. I did a double take when I realized the old paddle wheel boat that sat along the road for years was gone.

I’d wondered about the deteriorating boat every time we passed through Fort Benton on our way home. I began inquiring what happened to the boat. Here’s some of what I learned about who built the boat and why, how it ended up on a hillside in Fort Benton and, most recently, where it was relocated and what the new owner’s plans are for the unique craft.

Claude Donner was a frustrated farmer turned boat builder

In the early 1990’s Claude Donner and his wife lived near Geraldine, Montana on a farm owned by their daughter and son-in-law. Donner’s daughter told, “My husband and I left the farm to work in the shipbuilding industry in Bath, Maine. In 1990 a tornado wrecked the farm. My dad was very frustrated with farm work.” Fed up with the challenges of farming Claude announced, “I’m 65 years old, I’d better get to doing something I want to do.” He decided to build a paddle wheel boat noting, “…having this big river (Missouri several miles away) and not using it is terrible.”

Though not on the Missouri River the farm was close enough Claude figured at some point he could get the boat to water. “The plans of how to build the boat,” Claude told, “came to me in my sleep.” By the time he completed the boat it was 44 feet long, 14 feet wide and 17 feet tall, the height included a small pilot house atop the one-story boat.

Power to move the boat was to be provided by a diesel engine. The paddle wheel and rudders were fabricated at a nearby machine shop. Estimating the weight of the boat at “14,000 to 15,000 pounds,” he’d built it on a three-axle trailer frame and named the boat the “John W” in honor of a son killed in a hunting accident. Once on the water Claude hoped to “see the wildlife coming down to the water” and “look at the beautiful scenery from the river.” In 1994 Claude died, the boat sat unlaunched.

Ron Baker planned to use the boat as an art studio

Ron Baker was an art teacher. Interestingly Baker taught art during the 1974-75 academic year at Chinook High. Baker’s daughter recalled her dad visiting often with Clarence Cuts-the-Rope, a well- known native painter from Fort Belknap.

While in the Montana National Guard Baker was involved in a program to help soldiers with learning challenges and earned a certification as a special ed teacher. Per his obituary in 2010 he taught special ed at some point in Geraldine. That’s likely when and where he learned about the unused paddle wheel boat sitting out on a farm. Before his untimely death at age 60 Baker lived in Loma near where the Teton River empties in to the Marias River.

Baker’s daughter Colleen believes her dad bought the land in Fort Benton, where the old boat sat for many years, in 2004. Ron Baker died in 2010. If he moved the boat to Fort Benton when he bought the property, he worked on it for just a few years before he died.

During that time he removed the pilot house and added a complete second story to the original boat. The added story has an enlarged pilot house, a sitting room and a bunk house that will sleep six people comfortably. The original boat had a bunk room on the main level so moving the bunkhouse to the second story opened up the lower lever, where some of Baker’s abandoned art equipment still remained. The larger room in the lower story may have been where Baker planned to have his art studio.

Per his daughter, Baker chose the paddle wheel boat’s location midway up the hill north of Fort Benton because he liked the view toward the river. He also felt the boat’s location fit in with the “old river town theme” embraced by many locals.

Colleen Baker said she visited the boat once after her father located it just up the hill but “never saw much evidence he was using it for his art work.” Ron Baker did painting and the new owner of the boat said the first time he visited the boat there was a potter’s wheel and kiln suggesting Baker either had done pottery or had plans to begin.

The new owner/artist has novel plans for the “John W”

New owner Keith Haines said he spent a year and a half acquiring the old paddle wheeler and this July moved it to its current location. Keith is a fortyish guy with lots of elegant tattoos. The tattoos are no surprise as he is a tattoo artist with a shop called “Pilgrimage” located in downtown Fort Benton just across the street from Shep’s memorial.

Keith lived in Fort Benton off and on while attending school—graduating high school in 1997. He and his mother, Lori, live in Fort Benton. She was at the boat’s new location when I was able to visit with Keith and take a tour of the boat. Lori stated she is very excited about the boat and enjoys helping Keith get the boat, well, you know, “ship-shape.”

The paddle wheel boat was relocated to ten acres that Keith bought in 2014. The Teton River is north of the boat’s location and the acreage between the river and US 87 has lots of cottonwoods and shaded areas. The boat is visible from US 87 on the north side of the road just before the highway goes over an elevated ‘bridge.’ Coming from Fort Benton the turnoff via MT 387 (the road to the Fort Benton airport) it is three miles northeast to the boat on US 87.

Asked about the challenges of moving the huge boat Keith said, “First I reenforced and stabilized some parts of the boat that seemed weakened. We did not have to remove any parts of the boat because of height or width issues.” The paddle wheel assembly was moved separately. Adding the second story likely doubled the weight of the boat so

a fourth axle was added to the trailer the boat sits on for the move. The boat was moved without any additional damage to it.

About plans for the boat, Keith’s primary goal is to create “a guesthouse for outings and parties.” His plan includes extending the lower deck at the bow to make a ‘stage’ for performing groups. With shaded areas and level ground the area lends itself to concerts where performers would be on the front of the boat and the audience sitting or standing out under the trees

He even has a new purpose for the paddle wheel. Keith explained, “I would like to put solar panels on the paddles and use that energy for the boat.” More immediately he and mom Lori are working to ‘winterize’ the boat so work can continue inside once the cold weather sets in. One great change made by Ron Baker, per Keith, was to put a metal roof on the boat when he added the second story. “That metal roof,” Keith added, “likely saved the boat from worse deterioration.”

Keith’s enthusiasm has for fixing up the boat is almost contagious. He’s bringing his artistic eye to every part of the project. It will be interesting to see the end result. And, no, he assured me, that does not include taking the boat on to the river.