Topic starter
24/04/2011 6:17 pm
The sternwheel towboat MARY WOODS No. 2, which sank on January 30, 2010, at Jacksonport State Park on the White River, will NOT be restored. The Arkansas State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission determined that the boat is beyond repair and voted to remove her from the park and to use funds gleaned from her salvage for a new visitors center. It was estimated that it would take 1.8 to 2.7 million to restore the boat after she was raised from lying on her side in 20 feet of water. The MARY WOODS No. 2, built in 1931, was extensively restored at a cost of $870,000 after she was hit by a tornado in 1997. She was deemed beyond repair after her second and most recent sinking, the first time being in 1984.
Park staff members say that salvaged components, such as the pilotwheel, from the sternwheeler will be incorporated into steamboat exhibits at the new visitors center. The hull will be sold for scrap and the proceeds used to construct the center. The boat had been at Jacksonport since 1967.
There goes another one!
Topic starter
26/04/2011 12:04 pm
Hope!
Received a "sternline telegraph" report that a Batesville, AR man is working to save what's left of the MARY WOODS No. 2 and wants to restore her. No date has been set for the auction of her hull. Also there is interest in perhaps acquiring a replacement sternwheeler for Jacksonport, as the MARY WOODS No. 2 was a popular park attraction there.
26/04/2011 3:41 pm
Acquiring a replacement sternwheeler?
Why they're just lying around all over the place, mostly in bits and pieces, so that shouldn't be hard. You just mentioned in another thread that the Becky Thatcher remains are up for grabs. Piece of cake. There's a veritable Walmart of old steamboats waiting to be resurrected and "acquired".
Sigh
26/04/2011 5:50 pm
Ah, Lexie, one of my clients suggested that I should go measure the Rob't. E. Lee to confirm my drawings' accuracy. He became defensively angry when I asked him where to find her. She is in the fleet with the J. M. White and others somewhere, I think.
Topic starter
26/04/2011 10:44 pm
Museum visitors who have traveled to New Orleans sometimes tell me that they have ridden on the NATCHEZ that raced the ROBT. E. LEE. When I politely tell them that the boat upon which they rode is the 9th of the name, built in 1975, and a sternwheeler, most appreciate the correct information. But a few have argued and insist they rode the racer. They probably believe they saw Capt. T.P. Leathers too!
27/04/2011 2:45 am
She is 'a' racer, just not 'the' racer 🙂
27/04/2011 4:37 pm
Hallucinating
Was Blanche there as well? If so, I would like some of that stuff they were on.