FORT BENTON — Leslie Hansen-Clewien was born and raised in Fort Benton. She moved away, but always knew she’d be back: “It's my hometown, so I have deep roots here.”
Now she owns The Rustic Mug with her mother - and located right outside the shop is the Mandan, a keelboat prop from the movie "The Big Sky."
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Hansen-Clewien’s relationship to the boat is weak, at best; she explained, "My dad when he was in high school, I do think that they might have broke in there and drank a few beers, maybe.”
The 1952 movie was not filmed on the Missouri River, but it took place there, which is why the boat from the film moved to the birthplace of Montana in 1964.
In June 2022, MTN News talked with Kirby Matthew, a retired worker from the US Forest Service, who also worked as a Historic Preservation Specialist, about the boat.
He explained, "It kind of has a fascinating history to it. It was constructed in 1950 as a movie prop for 'The Big Sky,' and then it came to Fort Benton in, I believe, in 1964 and it's been sitting here as kind of a little landmark in Fort Benton for about 60 years now, and it's about 70 years old, so it's old enough to qualify for the national register."
Keelboats predate steamboats, and this model has been in the restoration process for four years, as a handful of volunteers work to bring it back.
Henry Schnackenberg, director of the Board of Community Improvement Association in Fort Benton, said, “We call them the Mandan crew, and we have utilized them throughout this whole project.”
He says now they can see the end in sight: “September 12th is our commission date for the Mandan.”
Soon they will be putting in the mast, a wooden pole donated by Northwestern Energy, and adding all the external ornaments.
Schnackenberg said, “Finally, when you drive by, ‘Oh, that looks like a real boat now’, instead of just the structure inside you can't see.”
Hansen-Clewien is excited to see the project wrap up, beautifying the riverfront in Fort Benton.
She said, “I love that they're redoing it. It's going to be a nice asset to our boardwalk. And we get a lot of people, a lot of tourists that come and, you know, they stop and look. They ask questions.”
