Several pirogues, crafted locally, are on display in Ellender Memorial Library as part of a collection created to preserve Louisiana’s boat-building heritage. Pictures, documents and tools associated with the process of building the boats are also featured. The display, created by the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building, is part of a bigger collection, which documents the history of the local craft.

The center was founded in 1979 at Nicholls. Tom Butler, the director of the center, applied for a grant from the National Maritime Heritage Act grants program and received $10,000 to have pirogues made by people in the surrounding area. Other pirogues in the collection were donated.

“One of the first pirogues we had donated was an old dugout,” Butler said.

Dugouts, which are the oldest type of pirogues, are made from a hollowed-out tree trunk. Most of these earlier dugouts were made from large cypress trees that used to be found in the area. The boat can be propelled by a paddle, push pole or a combination of the two together.

“Dugouts have been used by many different people all over the world,” Butler said. “Natives in Brazil, Africa and America all used them.”

Butler said that the Native Americans would build a fire in the middle of a large tree and use the controlled burn to begin fashioning the boat. When they had completed the first step, they used shells to carve out the remaining shape of the craft.

Natives of the Houma Indian Tribe are among those who have contributed a pirogue to the center’s vast collection.

After many of the larger cypress trees began disappearing, builders started using large planks to construct the pirogue. This began the emergence of the Cypress Plank and eventually the Marine Plywood pirogues.

These boats have been used for many years in Louisiana swamps for hunting, fishing, trapping and navigating waters that a larger craft would not be able to.

The Cypress Plank, Marine Plywood and Dugout are all featured in the pirogue display on campus.

Other pieces in the collection include pirogues, shrimp trawlers, skiffs, luggers and other boats built and used in Louisiana over its history.

In November 2007 the center, Nicholls and the City of Lockport created an agreement to have a local Ford dealership, built in 1917, renovated into a museum which would house the center’s boats.

Lockport officials agreed to the location, which is across the street from the Bayou Lafourche Folk-life Heritage Museum, as part of an effort to help revitalize the downtown area. The project was set in motion after state Rep. Warren Triche procured a grant of $100,000 for renovations.

The pirogue exhibit in Ellender Memorial Library will remain on display until a rent dispute between the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building and the city council in Lockport can be settled.