| History of the Col. Lewis | Here are the links to and information
about a couple of my favorite boat-building schools.
One is the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN, and actually hosts classes on all sorts of different crafts. And they teach a ton of different boat building classes, so you should check out their course listings to see what they offer! The folks at North House haven't done much with the Colonel Lewis, but one of the boat building instructors (Mark Hansen) thinks he may be able to identify the original builder of the boat I'm working on. And since the Colonel Lewis is originally from the North Shore (of Lake Superior), I figure North House should be mentioned! The other boat-building school that needs to be mentioned is the Home Port Learning Center, which is where I'm currently working on the boat. Home Port is a school for "adjudicated and at-risk youth." What that means is that it's a "last chance" for these kids to get a decent education, and Home Port seems to work really well in that regard for most kids. Home Port is sort of a vo-tec school, and focuses on teaching kids wood working, with a main focus on wooden boat building. They have a 30' Long Boat (The Plume) that they built at the school, and use it for educational opportunities in Bellingham Bay. I volunteer a few hours a week as a science teacher at Home Port, and in return, they let me store and work on my boat at the school. In addition, I've got access to all the boat-building expertise of the other teachers! |
