ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / July 11, 2000

It might be considered hands-on history. Four ancient lugger boats, whichonce enabled the Matherne family to fish from the swamps near Des Allemands, are a link with a past industry which once sustained their pioneering family.

Two of the remaining four boats have been donated to St. Charles Parishfor a museum. The others awaits Mike Matherne’s word.Pierre Dufrene was the boat builder who began it all. A hundred years agoDufrene constructed the “Helen” from cypress lumber hauled out from trees felled in the early lumber days during the 19th century.

The “Helen” was built as a working boat for Anthony Matherne and is now one of the oldest surviving boats in Louisiana. After Matherne was killedby lightning the boat passed to his son, Jack, then to another son, Tony, who kept it in Larose for 50 years until Mike Matherne acquired it 20 years ago upon his uncle’s death.

Nowadays the “Helen” rests in his yard, the hull in the “cargo” area rotted out but the unique rounded bottom and stern still intact, rounded to be able to slide around submerged cypress knees which would wreck conventional boats.

A slender, almost elegant boat, the “Helen” includes a cabin with no sleeping room inside but a roofed area on top where fishermen would lay out their mattresses and place mosquito netting around themselves. Theywere powered by old “hit-and-miss” one-cylinder engines.

Luggers got their name because of their resemblance to sailing luggers, which once plied the inland waters of Louisiana in early settlers’ days.

These boats, although never equipped for sail, nevertheless look like they would handle it easily.

Years ago such boats lined the shoreline of Bayou Gauche, and two more of the Dufrene boats are there now. The “Denver,” also built by Pierre’s son,Joseph “Yap” Dufrene in 1949, is the last remaining all-wooden tugboat in Louisiana.

The “Denver” is now awaiting restoration, and this boat, along with the “Champion,” built by Pierre Dufrene in 1925 and sitting near Somme’s Lucky 7 Lounge in Des Allemands, have been donated to St. Charles Parish.The parish’s plans are, at Matherne’s suggestion, to open a boat-building museum in the old American Legion Hall in Des Allemands.

That building itself has a storied past, having served as a schoolhouse in Des Allemands, Comardelle Village and Bayou Gauche before returning to Des Allemands.

Mike Matherne, 48, attended school in that building when it was in Bayou Gauche, and his parents attended school there in Comardelle.

Yet another Dufrene boat remains, the “Santa Fe,” now restored and being used by Mike and his wife, Cindy, as a pleasure boat. It also is berthed atBayou Gauche, alongside the “Denver.””We once spent a month on the “Santa Fe” trolling; she was glad to get back home,” he said with a grin.

After Joseph Dufrene died in the early 1980s Mike Matherne could find no carpenter who felt qualified to restore the boats, so he and his brother, Dr. Ray Matherne of Des Allemands, are carrying out the restoration workthemselves.

In June 1998 Mike Matherne suggested to then-Parish President Chris Tregre that a boat-building museum be established to highlight this lost art, urged on by the St. Charles Historical Foundation.The museum will eventually house antique skiffs, dugout pirogues and duck decoys which have survived the ravages of time, along with Indian artifacts recovered from the ancient villages of Lake Salvadore.

Meetings with parish officials continue, especially with Councilman Terry Authement, who has taken a special interest in the museum project.

And a new tourism attraction may be opening soon, highlighting the hard work, craftsmanship and heritage of “down-the-bayou” boatbuilders who will show that Cajuns are more than musicians and chefs – they’re blessed with a touch of genius.

“To rebuild a boat like this would be almost impossible,” Matherne said.

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