Salmon River Middle Fork Articles

Sweep Boats – the Freight Train of the Middle Fork

Those of you who’ve been on the Middle Fork with us have no doubt marveled at that big monstrosity that’s the first to reach camp each afternoon and the last to leave in the morning – our freight train, the Sweep Boat. It’s funny – many people think it’s called a “sweet boat” because the big pup hauls all of our grub (as well as all of our camp gear).

The first sweep boats were used on the Main Fork of the Salmon years before anyone even plied the waters of the mighty Middle Fork. Cap Guelike built sweeps in Salmon City and loaded them with tons of supplies for folks down river. Off they would go and after delivering all the supplies they would sell the boat to someone to use the lumber to build a home or store with. When river running became popular, sweeps immediately caught on as they could haul almost all of their gear on the big boats and thus lighten up the boats that carried guests. Wood scows (that is what they were called early on until the name “sweep” came along) gave way to rubber boats after World War II. The early sweeps had two men manning them, one on each arm. Nowadays there is usually one sweep driver and an assistant called a swamper who helps set up camp. The driver can control the boat using two arms that are attached to a blade. (An interesting sidenote: A fellow named Bob Smith once took a Volkswagen bus from the Boundary Creek put in to the Flying B Resort! This is the membership Ranch that many of us stop at on our fourth day of the trip.)

Solitude’s sweep is the largest on the river, and allows us to store all of our gear, and yours too (except lunch coolers, which travel with you). Our boat is ten feet wide by twenty four feet long and when you count in the length of the sweep arm it comes out to be nearly thirty eight feet long. It can handle three tons or more. It’s quite a sight to see a skilled driver take the big pup through tight places on the river. You get a great vantage point from the sweep, as you’re ten feet up; once in a while a guest will hitch a ride for a day on the sweep.

Running the sweep is not an easy job. Loading and unloading thousands of pounds of gear day-in/day-out for 4 months will surely get you in shape. It’s a great responsibility to operate the sweep as the entire trip is riding on the skill of the driver to make it safely down the river. A driver has to really know the river, as the sweep is not rowed like a drift boat, but steered. Most rivers are not feasible for sweep boats, as it takes a steep gradient to create enough current to keep them moving. The Main Fork of the Salmon is the only other river besides the Middle Fork that uses sweeps, but there they have to use motors to get the sweeps down the river as there is too much flat water and afternoon winds.