A piece of Arkansas history will be on display at the newly opened River Center at Riverside Park in Benton.
A nearly 900-year-old canoe, believed to belong to the Caddo tribe, was brought back to Saline County on March 19.
“I think the first word I said was ‘amazing,’” Benton Mayor David Mattingly said. “It was staggering to see how long it was.
“And being a technical guy, figuring out how they hollowed it and made it all work is all interesting.”
Brad Jordan, economic-development director for the city of Benton, said the Native Americans would fill the sides of the 24-foot canoe with mud and then burn the middle, allowing them to scrape out the burnt parts with stone tools to make room to sit.
“Until the other day, it was the first time I had ever seen it,” Jordan said. “I think people are going to be very interested in it.
“It is a piece of local history that not a lot of people have seen. It connects us to the past.”
Charles Greene found the canoe while fishing on the Saline River at Peeler Bend on Aug. 21, 1999.
“I had seen the thing before,” said Greene, 82. “It looked like an old log; the mud covered all but a little edge.”
Greene, who lives in Benton, would fish the area about once every three weeks and never paid much attention to the canoe.
“I would stop in the same spot to eat my sandwich and have a few drinks,” Greene said. “I would fish until I got to the canoe, where there was a gravel bar, and I would beach there and have my lunch.”
Greene said that one day, when the water was real low, he finally looked at the canoe.
“The water was low, so I waded over to it, and I looked down, and it was too straight for it to be a log,” Greene said. “The next week, I took my shovel and ran my hand down [the canoe], and it was real smooth.
“I knew then it wasn’t a log.”
Greene attempted to contact several experts to verify his find before he finally called the Gann Museum in Benton. The museum put him in contact with local amateur archaeologist Guy Moore, who had verified other Native American artifacts.
“I called him, and he went out there with me the next weekend,” Greene said. “I think he thought it was a waste of time, but when he went over and looked at the thing, sure enough, it is a canoe.
“So he set up a group of people to meet him the next weekend.”
Former Benton Mayor Rick Holland was one of the volunteers Moore contacted to help dig out the canoe.
“We have always wanted that canoe back in Benton where it was found,” Holland said. “Now that they have it at Riverside Park, they can store it and display it.
“So I’m real proud of the city of Benton for doing that.”
Greene said once they unearthed the canoe, most of it was surprisingly still able to float. He said they did have to use some inner tubes near the front.
“The front end was real heavy,” Greene said.
“We had some inner tubes, and we walked it down the river until we got to Lyle Park,” Holland said.
Jordan said the canoe, which has become known as the Peeler Bend Canoe, is on loan from the Historic Arkansas Museum.
“Every three years, they will come and do a site visit and make sure everything is copacetic,” Jordan said, “make sure we aren’t having kids ride it, or play on the glass, or anything like that.
“As long as we are treating it well, being stewards to this wonderful piece of history, there will be no reason for them to rescind the loan.”
“I’m hoping it stays there quite awhile so people can get a sense of what it was like 900 years ago,” Greene said.
Greene guessed the canoe could hold five or six people easily.
“There was a flat area in the back so one person could stand and push the boat. They said the tree it was made out of was about 100 years old (when it was cut down), and [the canoe] weighed about 2,000 pounds when it was wet and probably 1,000 pounds now that it is dry. That darn thing is heavy,” Greene said.
“I think it is a very symbolic artifact,” Mattingly said. “That makes the statement of what was going on in the country.
“It gives us all a chance to think a little bit of how people did things back then, as far as transportation and trade.”
Jordan said the Peeler Bend Canoe has been on display at the Historic Arkansas Museum and at a museum near the Mississippi River.
“Ironically, they had to get the canoe from the place it was at because the river was cresting and coming up to the doors,” Greene said. “So they had to go get the canoe so it wouldn’t be submerged in water again.”
Jordan said there was talk about getting the canoe displayed at the Benton Event Center, but because of the canoe’s size, there wasn’t really a good place for it.
“The space wasn’t big enough,” Jordan said. “There is a lot of natural light that would be on it the entire time.
“Having it here at the River Center makes a lot more sense. It is going to be a lot more impactful, and I think they have a great spot for it.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.