Topic starter
25/01/2007 5:56 pm
With all the dire news recently about libraries and museums and their finances, etc. here's a piece of good news: The campaign to build a shelter over the LONE STAR has reached its goal and work on the glass walled structure will begin this spring. The next phase of the campaign is to raise monies for repairs to the boat itself. The LONE STAR was the last working sternwheel towboat on the UMR and was retired in 1967. Since then she has been up on the grounds of the Buffalo Bill Museum in LeClaire, Iowa - just upriver from the Quads. She happened to be the last big project of the Kahlke Boatyard in Rock Island when they put a new wooden hull on her in 1957. Here's a picture of that project at Kahlke's, with our old ferryboat, the WJ QUINLAN, rotting away in the background. She had been there since November 1945, and burned in April 1967... The second pix shows the LONE STAR in action in her last years, hauling for Builders Sand and Gravel in the Quad Cities area. The third is a shot of her up on the bank years ago.
25/01/2007 6:15 pm
Thanks for that good news Judy! I was last on the LONE STAR, I think, in the summer of 1982, with you, and I well recall how careful we had to be to keep from falling through the rotten decks, especially in the engine room and fantail areas. Capt, Bill Ray and wife Becky visited the boat not long ago and were disappointed that the pilothouse is now off limits due to the deterioration. Still, the old towboat is well worth visiting and I'm glad to hear that preservation/restoration work is finally beginning. I remember there was a donation jar on the boat for contributions to feed the orange cat that lived aboard. The DQ often passed LeClaire in the wee hours, but the LONE STAR was easy to see and they always had the red and green stack lanterns lit, as well as an amber light on the bow. The adjoining Buffalo Bill Museum has a lot of good "steamboat stuff" on display.
Topic starter
25/01/2007 6:43 pm
Yes, the boat is in great need of repairs. One time a u-bolt or stirrup from the paddlewheel fell off as I was walking around it, and the darn thing bounced up and landed in my shoulder bag! It is the smallest of my stirrups, others from the DQ, NATCHEZ, and SPRAGUE, 'acquired' or 'liberated' in various manners...
29/01/2007 7:58 pm
I visited the "Lone Star" in 1986, 1999, and 2005. Even on my first visit, I believe everything above the main deck was -off limits-. The old boat sure was rough. Good to hear some robust measures for protection and preservation are on the way!
30/01/2007 4:18 am
Old Lady LONE STAR
The LONE STAR was always one of my favorite steamboats to watch since I first fell in love with her from the deck of the AVALON in 1959. Last time I saw her running was in the fall of '65. And what a show! The DQ ran behind and to the right of the little cutie for sometime... a magic moment to recall!
As there is now a diesel towboat running for Builder's named LONE STAR, the tiny steamboat is always recalled by old-timers in that pool as the "Old Lady Lone Star." Mr. Bernie Goldstein, the father of Riverboat Gamlin' revival, is reputed to own Builder's S&G.... among many other things.
30/01/2007 11:56 am
I had been reading this thread, but something just this morning came to me. When Capt. Rip Ware worked for Pure Oil Co., he was making his first trip up the Upper on the m/v R.H. McELROY. This was before the days of VHF radios - some boats had short wave sets, but they were not required, and not used for arranging passing signals, etc., as they are today.
Capt. Ware was upbound in Pool 14 on a dark night, and as he would say, "lost as a goose in a snowstorm". He told me he saw that sternwheel steamboat up ahead of him, and he thought, "Oh, boy, that must be the ALEXANDER McKENZIE! I can follow him and I sure won't get lost!" Well, he followed the LONE STAR for a few miles. The LONE STAR was headed in to the slough above Cordova, IL to pick up some sand barges from the dredge...Capt. Ware following blythely behind. The pilot of the LONE STAR must have looked behind him and noticed Ware following with his long unit tow, and flashed his searchlight out toward the channel several times to indicate where the main channel was. Capt. Ware said he "felt like a d*mn fool" and always appreciated "that fellow setting me straight"!
Topic starter
30/01/2007 6:58 pm
Today's towboat is the LADY LONE STAR, and she's usually docked at the Moline gravel yard, near the CELEBRATION BELLE. Michael Blaser has a painting of the DQ and the LONE STAR in similar position to what you described.
30/01/2007 10:42 pm
Lady Lone Star. Okay, that makes the "Old Lady” Lone Star clearer as why I heard that peculiar reference said so much. While I was in the Q-City area aboard the DIAMOND LADY-- another B. Goldstein enterprise--- I was pleasantly surprised how often boatmen talked about the Steamer LONE STAR
What sort of engines are on the LS? Is the all the auxiliary gear still aboard? Often I have wished someone would use them in a new steamboat, but that's very unlikely.