Old Boat Column

Happy New Year! We begin the Old Boat Column for 2020 with one of the beautiful steamboats operated by the famous Diamond Jo Line, the steamer Quincy. Built at Dubuque,… Read More

In 1910, the Howard Shipyards at Jeffersonville built a trim sternwheeler named Nashville to run in the Evansville–Nashville–Paducah trade for W.W. Parminter of Nashville, Tenn. The wood-hulled riverboat measured 155… Read More

This week, the Old Boat Column presents a photo of the Falls City. Built in 1898 at Cincinnati for the Louisville & Kentucky River Packet Company, the sternwheeler ran between… Read More

Built in 1902 by the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind., the Stacker Lee was owned by the famous Lee Line of Memphis. Constructed at a cost of $21,600 on a… Read More

Built in 1879 for the Missouri River trade, the Montana was a packet with a wooden hull measuring 250 feet in length by 48.8 feet in width. Displacing 959 tons,… Read More

Third in a line of government steamboats to carry the name, the Mississippi had a unique beginning. A new steel hull, built by the Howard Shipyard at Jeffersonville, Ind., in… Read More

This week, the Old Boat Column presents a recently-acquired image of the steamboat Dubuque. This large sternwheeler was originally known as the packet Pittsburgh. Built in 1879 by the Cincinnati… Read More

Several steamboats carried the name of Alton, paying tribute to the Illinois city on the Upper Mississippi River above St. Louis. Undoubtedly the best known and most attractive riverboat to… Read More

Built in 1913 at Santa Rosa, Fla., the unique sidewheeler Julia Belle Swain was originally the Charles E. Cessna, named for a Chicago physician. The riverboat was designed to run… Read More

Built at Evansville, Ind., in 1879, the John R. Hugo was originally listed as a towboat. The wood hull was only 82.6 feet in length by 20 feet in width. Read More