Topic starter
08/04/2007 12:37 am
Hey all,
A friend of mine has found a picture in his family album of a steamboat and asked me to identify the boat. The picture I have here is not too clear (I don't have my scanner to copy it correctly) however, the quality is not too far off the original.
I was thinking the boat was the SIDNEY. However, I didn't expect spar poles on her bow. I am told the excursion was happening in the Portland neighborhood of Louisville...the river looks too wide to me to be there.
Anyone wanna take a stab at it? It has me puzzled!
~Travis~
08/04/2007 5:24 am
I'm not sure when the photo was taken, so I can't tell you her name at that time. I can tell you that she made history in a previous life when she hauled up on an Indian mound, out in a cornfield, up in West By God Virginia one rainy night. Take a look at those hog chains and the main deck picket fence, and I think that you'll agree that we're looking at either the STEEL CITY, EAST ST. LOUIS (which is my guess), ISLAND BELLE, or GREATER NEW ORLEANS when the photographer snapped the shutter. Come to think of it, I believe, she had an upper texas added when she was the EAST ST. LOUIS, so I think that the photo was probably taken very early on as the EAST ST. LOUIS. But as Dale is want to say, "But what do I know!"
Topic starter
08/04/2007 4:15 pm
Frank,
After talking to the owner he is saying most likely in the 1910-1920 range for a date on it. I had thought EAST ST LOUIS and SIDNEY as the possibilities. The owner thought the IDLEWILD. I wish the picture was clearer...for the hog chains would be the answer here!
~Travis~
30/03/2008 3:15 am
Travis, this has GOT TO BE the str: VIRGINIA before she had the 4th deck added. The lines and superstructure of this boat gives it away.
31/03/2008 9:46 pm
Looks like the VIRGINIA to me after looking at the photos in John Hartford's book "Steamboat in a Cornfield." But what do I know?