Folk boats are those small craft made by their users or by local boatbuilders who learned their construction techniques from an older generation. Hundreds of folk boats are built each year without blueprints or plans in backyards and small boatyards scattered throughout south Louisiana, where this tradition remains an important part of everyday life. It is not a folk tradition that depends upon sales to tourists; rather it survives simply because many require small boats for their livelihood.

Boats are found throughout the state, although in north Louisiana there was never a strong folk boat tradition, for the area was settled by Anglo ...