Tallstacks 1999 Captains Photo

Not sure, but I think the 2nd from left in the front row is Capt. Mike Monahan from the DQ. Second from right in the back (next to Mike Blitgen) is Capt. James Gilmer of the ISLAND QUEEN.

Captains ID

I can't get the photo to enlarge much, but is the thin capless one in the back maybe Scott Schadler?

No, not Scott Schadler...I would definately recognize him.

AQ paddlewheel mix-up

"Original paddlewheel"? My dear friends: The paddlewheel behind those captains seem new and unused and man-made material. Was that paddlewheel built for that display? Was the original str. AMERICAN QUEEN paddlewheel too large and too heavy and too rotten to be approved by landlubbers for display? Attached are some photos from September 19, 2007, taken at Amherst/Madison, where Campbell's Creek mixes with the Great Kanawha River in Charleston, WV. Didn't Nelson Jones and crew make a daring midnight rescue of the AQ's original paddlewheel from a ditch and bring it home for display? This used and rotten and historical/original paddlewheel from the str. AMERICAN QUEEN can be seen from moving traffic on Interstate 64/77 and US Route 60 east and upriver of the WV State Capitol.

*RE: 'Original' paddlewheel it isn't*
Hi, Bela & Steamboating colleagues:
Bela, right you are--the wheel in the photo 'isn't' the one from the AMERICAN QUEEN and you're seeing the 'original' wheel from Interstate 64/77 W.VA. is on the mark. The Tall stacks honchos wanted a display leading into the event here mounted. The AQ's original wheel had been dropped up Licking River near/at CARLISLE CONST. Co. grounds and Capt. Bill Judd sleuthed it out. The original wheel, in the opinion of the Tall Stacks committee, was just too darned heavy to lift/mount in the brackets along with the wood needing future attention. So a 'dummy' wheel was assembled from either plastic or some other composite material. Statements in the press here claimed the wheel we see to be from the AQ, but it isn't. Capt. Judd knows the story inside and out.

Incidentally, some discussions have been bantered around here RE: a future Tall Stacks and I've met with a couple of people in off-handed casual talks. The initial 'seed money' amount bantered around in the fall of 2009 has escalated from some $600,000 now up to on/around $1,200,000 to $1,500,000 just to get the wheels rolling [No pun intended]. What boats with 'wheels' to roll interested in being a part doesn't look good at this point. This 'seed money' from private, corporate donations, naturally. The year 2012 was vaguely mentioned but that's a big election year and thinking was to steer away from that due to divided attention and PAC funds--if any--already ear marked. Cincinnati as a municipal entity is in dire financial straits now with massive program/service cuts, municipal workers possibly out of jobs, closing of fire stations, reduction of police force etc. Don't hold your collective breaths. Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

I'd swear that the wheel shown in the photo is the AQ's original wheel. The Delta Queen Steamboat Co. gave the wheel to the City of Cincinnati after it was cut off during the 1995 season. The wheel "floated" around the Cincinnati harbor for awhile. An exact copy was made during that time and now hangs above the heads of its visitors at the Cincinnati Public Landing. It was sometime after the Tall Stack photo was taken, with the original wheel resting on the banks of the Licking River at Wilder, KY, that Nelson Jones rescued it and hauled it off to West "Bye God" Virginia.

Capt. Bela is wrong, Frank is right and R.Dale just has the wheels mixed. The photo that Capt Vize posted is the origional American Queen wheel. It was placed on one of Capt. Nelson Jones's barges and moored at the Serpintine Wall for the entire 1999 Tall Staks event. After the event it was off loaded at the Wilder, Ky. yard of Carlisle Corp. Then things got a little "off kelter". In the fall of 2002 "the wheel" was mounted on two steel towers at the new National Steamboat Monument with big fanfare. I was an invited guest and the "Dean of the Cincinnati harbor", C.Wm.( Bill) Kinzeler sat next to me. As a rather small crane lifted the wheel into place, Bill K said" something is fishy here, that crane could not pick up the AQ wheel". Well, it turned out that the Hamster cage looking contraption was a fake. I found the original still in place at Wilder, Ky. I called the Cincinnati Enquirer, they sent out a photographer, ran a big expose story and a lot of Cincinnati big shots had very red faces. Now as to the rest of the story, the AQ wheel was not in some ditch, but well blocked and safe. Capt. Nelson Jones secured it from Cincinnati and hauled it up river in December 2002 to Port Amherst.

On the mark again!

Capt. Bill gives 'the rest of the story' again. He doesn't post often, but when he does, he gives us the word from experience.

Thank you all for setting me straight on the details and the order of events. I expect to see you all again on the river--sometime.