WINSLOW — The bottom came first, then the bow, stern and seats, crafting a boat to carry troops and supplies up the Kennebec River during the Revolutionary War.

And it was built in a garage in 2025.

At the mouth of Winslow’s Public Works garage, nestled in a sea of tools, plans and photos, a small crew has spent months constructing a replica of a 1770s bateau, a wooden Revolutionary War-era boat. The bateau will go on display in the coming weeks in Winslow’s Fort Halifax Park, a former British colonial outpost on the Sebasticook River with a historic blockhouse.

It will bring another attraction to the park, Town Manager Steve Soucy said.

“The hope is to get more people to visit the park,” Soucy said. “It’s not just the blockhouse: There’s wildlife in the river, and then bringing the bateau to the fort ties in the historical aspect with regard to the trek up the Kennebec.”

The bateau project was helmed by the Arnold Expedition Historical Society, a Maine nonprofit preserving the history of Benedict Arnold’s ill-fated expedition up the Kennebec River in 1775 to capture the British-occupied city of Quebec. This year marks the 250th anniversary of that trek.

Arnold’s expedition began in early September in Pittston, where Gen. George Washington had ordered shipbuilder Reuben Colburn to build 200 bateaux for Arnold and his 1,100 men, a task accomplished in just 14 days and nearly entirely at Colburn’s expense, according to the Arnold Expedition Historical Society.

Many died of cold and disease along the difficult journey, and the remaining troops sustained heavy losses during their defeat in Quebec. The expedition is considered a major failure.

Arnold was later revealed to be leaking information to the British and is remembered by history as a traitor. Despite his treachery, Arnold’s journey through the Maine wilderness is honored today through expedition markers which can be followed from Pittston all the way to Eustis.

With grants from the Elsie & William Viles Foundation, the Arnold society worked with a local boat builder to offer five bateau kits — consisting of pre-cut bow and stern pieces and an assortment of rough wood — to historical sites across the state. One recipient was The Friends of Fort Halifax, a Winslow nonprofit.

Through months of cutting and crafting, that pile of lumber became a bateau measuring 22 feet long, said Fred Clark, a Winslow resident and Arnold Society member, who used plans and reference photos to build a historically accurate boat.

“They used these things all over the place,” Clark said. “They were water trucks, is what they were, because your highways were all waterways. They built them for lakes, they built them for rivers, they built them for the coastal areas. They vary by wherever you’re going to use them; they change in length and they change in depth.”

The completed bateau will be displayed on a stand next to the blockhouse, where it will be seen by many, said Ray Caron, Winslow resident and volunteer at The Friends of Fort Halifax.

“We open up the fort now almost every day for visitors,” Caron said. “So last year at the fort, over 600 signed the book from 27 states and 12 countries. It will be part of that exhibit down there at Fort Halifax Park.”

Students regularly visit the fort on school field trips. Caron said the bateau exhibit will be outfitted with an informational sign about Arnold’s trip up the Kennebec — which passed through Fort Halifax — as well as a sign about the Native American people who for centuries fished and gathered at the spot overlooking the Sebasticook River.

“We need to get a narrative sign for the Native American culture down there, because they were there for 5,000 years,” he said. “One of my main objectives is to get Native American signage down there about what happened and educate people on the Native American culture. They were there for 5,000 years. The fort was there for 10 years.”

Fort Halifax was built by English settlers in 1754 to defend the upper Kennebec River Valley during the French and Indian War. The fort hosted Arnold’s troops during his 1775 expedition  and was decommissioned in 1766. In the years after, Clark said the site alternated between being a tavern, storehouse, dwelling and trading post.

The blockhouse became a national historic landmark in 1968, later surviving a destructive flood in 1987. It was painstakingly reassembled and opened to the public.

Another flood in 2024 destroyed a centerpiece stage in the park. The town is preparing to break ground on a new stage with a canopy roof in the coming months, said Soucy, who hopes the park can once again host live music and town celebrations.

“I’m sure we can get some activities going there, once we get the stage put in,” he said.

Fort Halifax Park is one place where Winslow residents can work together toward a common goal, Caron said.

“There are hundreds and hundreds of people in the town of Winslow that do good, regardless of viewpoints or ideas,” he said. “We’re all above that type of thing, and Fort Halifax is, I think, a great example of where everybody can come together and be involved in a project that is important to the town.”