Golden Eagle Ships Wheel found ?

*RE GOLDEN EAGLE wheel*
Hi, Richard & Steamboating colleagues:
Fascinating posting above RE: possibly identiflying what could be the wheel from the GOLDEN EAGLE. If there was a way you could post a photo of the wheel would greatly help.

The one who would possibly know with great insights and information with a photorgaphic memory would be our own Keith Norrington down at the Howard Museum. Keith has always been a fan of the GOLDIE with much ephemera along with memories realted to him by Ms. Ruth Ferris. Could be...very well could be, but lots of relics now and then pop up here and there with either oral or written provenance. I had a recent off-the-wall E=Mail with a photo showing what was purported to be a fine silver, crystal table cruet set from the Str. QUEEN CITY. Looked about right from the photo but no way to see in person. Many steamboat materials were bought on the standard market supplying boats, hotels, restaurants ashore and for outfitting steamboat main cabins etc. with many looking alike. I know I don't know. Keep us posted.

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

I would have expected the wheel to have been larger in diameter than 59 inches. Also, didn't Ruth Ferris save the entire wheel house from the GOLDEN EAGLE? That would have included the wheel I would have thought, but I could be wrong. All of this stuff is supposedly in storage together somewhere. It'd be a real shame if it has been scattered. This is definitely Keith's area of expertise and I look forward to his response.

IN A NUTSHELL: The entire pilothouse of the Str. GOLDEN EAGLE (built in 1904 as the WM. GARIG here at Jeffersonville, IN) was salvaged, at Grand Tower Island in the Mississippi River, from the wrecked steamboat in 1947 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was sold at auction for $257 to the Community School in St. Louis, of which noted river historian Miss Ruth Ferris was assistant principal and fifth grade teacher. After being on the school campus for 14 years the pilothouse was donated to the Missouri Historical Society in 1961 to become the centerpiece of the new River Room gallery, of which Miss Ferris was curator from 1957 until 1965. Sorry to say, most of the fabulous river collection of the MHS has been placed into storage and the River Room is no more. The 8 foot pilotwheel of the "GOLDIE" is exhibited in a corridor, but the remainder of the pilothouse has been dismantled and stored.

IMAGES:
1:) I took this view in the MHS River Room in October, 1976.
2:) A view of the pilotwheel, bell stand and steering levers shortly after the pilothouse was salvaged from the boat.

*The 59 inches wheel diameter*
Hi, Phillip and Steamboating colleagues:
Keith promptly rose to settle the issue at his Howard Museum desk on a busy day RE: the GOLDEN EAGLE wheel with proof in documents, pictures, memories and that clinched it. I also questioned the '59 inch wheel diameter' here using my metal retractable construction tape measure. 'No way,' I opined. No hard feelings in solving these questions as is often done on Steamboats.org. Again, "...it often takes a village to tell a story" using steamboat forensics. Again and again the one classic B/W photo of the 1st ISLAND QUEEN snapped by captain/Pilot Tony Meldhahl crops up on sites like e=bay as original at a very high beginning bid. Not so. That photo has been in the public domain for years showing up in book stores hither and yon as a reprint. The old wag, "If it doesn't look right, feel right then chances are it isn't right." Beauty and value often in the eye of the beholder. Well, what do I know?

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