BATH, Maine — On the edge of the Kennebec River in the shipbuilding city of Bath, the small, wooden boat a few volunteers are building looks unimpressive.
Compared to the Navy warships built here every day and the replica of a 1609 sailing vessel built on this same spot just three years ago, the 19-foot-long batteau is as basic as a boat can be. A series of wooden frames, connected by pine boards, sawn to shape, pointed at each end.
But in 1775, more than 200 batteau just like it were built on this same river, to carry soldiers from the colonial army to fight the British and conquer Quebec.
They were led by one of the colonies’ best fighting leaders, Colonel and later Major General Benedict Arnold.
"Benedict Arnold is synonymous with traitor," Mike Holt, a volunteer with the Arnold Expedition Historical Society, said. "But as Duluth Wing [a former member] used to say, when he came through here, he was a hero."
Holt is part of the crew building the first of five batteaux, which the society plans to use to celebrate next year’s 250th anniversary of the Arnold Expedition.
That story of the expedition—sometimes called Arnold's March to Quebec—is one of courage, struggle, and perseverance in the wilderness.
"I think he tried to do an amazing thing and was gambling on everything going right," Rob Stevens, leader of the boat-building team and society member, said.
In September 1775, Arnold and 1,100 soldiers gathered at the Colburn House in Pittston, downriver from Gardiner, where 220 batteaux were built to carry the force upriver through what was then wilderness.
They pulled and dragged their boats up the Kennebec, around waterfalls to the Dead River, then up more rapids and falls into Chain of Ponds, then eventually through woods to the St. Lawrence River and Quebec.
The two-month trek forced the expedition to face hardship and hunger. Hundreds of men actually turned back and went home, while some others died along the way.
Arnold finally arrived in Quebec with about 700 men.
"It's just out of this world what they did," Stevens said.
Arnold and his force attacked the British fortress in Quebec on New Year’s Eve, and the battle did not go well for the Continental troops.
"You and me, we would go and look at Quebec City and say there is no way in the world I’m getting up there. But they get up there and see no problem attacking the biggest fortress in North America."
Arnold was seriously wounded and his force never took Quebec. During 1776 they fought multiple skirmishes and battles with the British Army pursuing them, finally to Lake Champlain in Vermont. There, Arnold and his men built boats and fought the British on the lake, to stop them from breaking through to the Hudson River, where they could cut off New England from the rest of the colonies.
That history is what the Arnold Expedition Historical Society has been working for years to preserve. And Mike Holt says it's why they are now building new batteaux, to spread the story and mark the anniversary.
"Indeed, we would like to have reminders of the expedition all the way, from Pittston, where they started, right through to Eustis, where they crossed into Canada, Holt said.
They plan to build five of the small vessels to be used in a variety of events, and then place them in specially-built pavilions at key locations along the route, as monuments to the Arnold Expedition.
At the same time, the society continues its work to preserve sections of the trail and help to preserve the Colburn House property, which is now a state historic site. The Colburn house has deteriorated, but Maine's Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry has received a large grant from the National Park Service to rebuild it.
Holt says the society consists of about 30 members now, many of them getting into their elder years. They share what he called "Arnold Expedition fever," a passion for the history of the remarkable trek through the Maine wilderness.
"You start working with these guys, clearing trails and building bridges, and they say, 'You know what happened when they went through here? They got their shoes torn off going through the muck and it was so bad.' That kind of stuff."
That history, he says, can be contagious. The society hopes the coming celebration can bring new recruits, who will also catch the fever.
They say the Arnold story, which began on this river, is too good and too important to let it fade away.