Topic starter
01/10/2008 12:26 pm
I just returned from a trip on the Illinois Waterway from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and came across two boats of interest to many of you. Just above Kampsville on the Illinois River the Goldenrod is moored and the owner happened to be there showing the vessel to prospective investers. I talked to owner, John Schwarz and he still has hopes to restore and put the showboat back into service. The Goldenrod looks pretty bad but he left me with some glimmer of hope that the boat may be saved. I'm not all that convinced that it will happen but there is a chance. At the Kampsville Landing I was surprised to see the towboat America. I have seen the historic boat many times moored on the upper Mississippi rusting away. I think it sat there for 11 years. It has been purchased and moved to Kampsville and is being converted to a resaurant/bar and B&B. They are also developing an RV camp at the site and will have a fuel barge for pleasure craft. The boat looks beautiful. I am happy to see that it is being restored for a useful purpose. The sister boat the United States is moored at Greenville, MS with an uncertain future. Photos are of the two vessels.
01/10/2008 12:54 pm
Thanks, Jerry, for the update on the GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT and former Federal Barge Line towboat AMERICA. It's good to know there's still "talk" about a new life for the 1909 built showboat, but several old riverboats are languishing along the waterways with lots of "talk" and no action about their futures. I can't count the inquiries I've received about the history of the Str. BECKY THATCHER from people with BIG ideas and LITTLE or no money to carry them out! But, there's always HOPE!
Thanks again!
01/10/2008 3:31 pm
Goldenrod
Jerry, were you able to see the condition of the interior of the Goldenrod?
Topic starter
01/10/2008 10:46 pm
Keith, I was actually thinking about those possible investors. If they are serious about buying into a showboat, the Becky Thatcher would be a much better investment to work with. I didn't go aboard the boat but was told that it was stripped out.
02/10/2008 12:04 am
Nice pics, Jerry! There's a special place in my heart for the Goldenrod, as it is the very first craft on which I performed on the river back in 1977 when I played at the St. Louis Ragtime Festival.
02/10/2008 12:20 pm
Jazzou: Nice to know your first riverboat gig was aboard the old GOLDENROD! Those annual Ragtime Festivals surely were fun and often went into the wee hours with some musicians even playing out on the levee! I've been talking with Don Franz, founder of the St. Louis Ragtimers, about the possibility of them coming over to do a "Riverboat Ragtime" program at the Howard Steamboat Museum as part of the River Ramblings series. Don was co-owner of the GOLDENROD with Frank Pierson when the showboat was purchased from Capt. J.W. Menke after the 1962 fire and restored. The Ragtimers were the "house band" on the showboat and also played in the Boiler Room Bar aboard the Str. BECKY THATCHER and at the Old St. Louis Levee House on Wharf Street above the Eads Bridge (both also owned by Frank Pierson) in the building which formerly housed the Eagle Boat Store.
Don tells me that he has TONS of old films and videotape from past Ragtime Festivals in the 60's, 70's and 80's that he's putting onto DVD. You're probably on one of them!
04/10/2008 12:33 pm
General allen eagle
MR NORRINGTON: Did you get the pictures I sent you of the pilot house Eagle at the Dubuque River Museum?????????
05/10/2008 3:45 pm
What a great band, the St. Louis Ragtimers! And their piano tickler, Trebor Tichenor is one of my heroes. It would be swell if you got them to come to the Howard Steamboat Museum. Be sure to keep me in the loop - I probably couldn't make it out there when it happens, but you never know.