His men called it "the Experiment." To Meriwether Lewis, it was going to be a salvation.

In the end it lay abandoned at the Great Falls of the Missouri River.

The iron-frame boat was an experiment that never set sail.

The Experiment was an iron-frame boat that Jefferson and Lewis dreamed up before the expedition. The Corps would carry the frame all the way to the Great Falls and then cover it with animal hides to make the journey past the falls, leaving behind the pirogues that had gotten them that far. The grand idea failed miserably.

The ironworkers at Harpers Ferry, VA, did their part. They provided Lewis with a lightweight, collapsible frame. However, when it came time to make pine pitch to seal the animal skins around the frame, Lewis faced a problem he hadn't considered. There were no pines near the falls. He experimented with different mixtures from other trees for two weeks before launching the elk-skin-covered boat on July 9, 1805. It sank within the day.

Lewis had no more time to experiment with the Experiment. He left his creation in a cache and never mentioned it again. And no one bothered to pick it up on the return trip.

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