You read it here first, folks: Hartford should have amphibious duck boat tours cruising the Connecticut River and the confines of the Constitution Stateâs capital city.

Cities like Boston, Washington D.C., and Doha, Qatar all feature truck/boat vehicles that explore city streets and cruise water ways.

For those who have never had the pleasure, the cute tour guide on the Diva Duck in West Palm Beach convinced me to take the tour on Floridaâs Intercoastal Waterway (disclosure: I liked her so much Iâm dating her).

By the end of the tour, though, I wondered why Hartford doesnât have one for its river. Has someone had tried it before, and has it failed? If you know, let me know.

Imagining a tour for Hartford is easy. Obviously, it would be seasonal, but I could envision several routes. One idea would be to start at the Mark Twain House, since he was such a riverboat man himself.

The land/sea craft could proceed east down Farmington, then lap Bushnell Park, and cut to Capital Avenue. Capital ends on Main Street and the Butler McCook Homestead.

The route might then turn south down Main, past the Wadsworth and City Hall. The tour guide could sprinkle in the story about the Charter Oak right before Colt Park, then the route would turn left onto Wawarme Avenue.

Wawarme heads right into Charter Oak Landing, and the duck enters the water when the tide is right. That might limit the boat to two tours a day, but that is plenty. Hopefully, Riverfront Recapture will have the page on its website that describes boat launch conditions there up soon.

The tour would motor up the mighty Connecticut, passing the blue onion dome, the buried Park River and Riverfront Recapture, noting the riverside walking parks on both the east and west banks.

On the river, our guide would mention that at one time in Hartford, you could board a boat at night and wake up the next morning in New York City. Incidentally, itâs a shame that service has disappeared. How cool would that be?

The guide would explain some about the downtown skyline, maybe a tidbit about the Phoenix Boat Building, which the Hartford Preservation Alliance just rallied to have placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Then, the boat is under the Bulkeley Bridge, which was once wooden and burned down. The tour could discuss the ubiquitous flooding problem and the dykes that help solved it.

All the while, our happy tourists would be experiencing Hartford from a visual perspective most never get to enjoy. It would even be a new view for many boaters, because the amphibious crafts sit so high above the water and the street.

The tour would leave the water at Riverside Park.

Or perhaps the tour could start at Riverside Park, (ample parking is a plus, and it has a history of accommodating commercial ventures). It would head into the water immediately, and then drive through the city.

Hartford actually has too many sites to squeeze into a 90-minute tour. What a way it would be to introduce people to the river, offer them access to the waterway and excite them about the natural beauty hiding under the highway.

Who will be the entrepreneur to undertake this venture?

5/17/05

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