Topic starter
12/05/2008 7:38 pm
Just back from a sojourn in the South. Saw a BIG river at Vicksburg, Natchez and St. Francisville, where the road to the ferry was closed and under water at Bayou Sara. The AMERICAN QUEEN visited Natchez last week and I took some pictures of her stage almost in the front door of the Under-the-Hill Saloon! A portion of Silver Street was still submerged, although the river was receding, albeit very slowly.
At Deer Park, Louisiana (16 miles downriver from Natchez) the old Str. MAMIE S. BARRETT is again afloat after being beached out in the cutoff since the mid 1990's. Maria Greer, manager of the Deer Park Campgrounds, kindly provided the attached photos. The MAMIE began life at the Howard Shipyards here in 1921 and was for a time named PENNIMAN during her long career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Retired in the late 1940's, she became a boat club renamed PIASA at West Alton, Missouri, before being sold in the early 1980's and serving for a time as a restaurant at Vicksburg. The old boat was offered some years ago to the Howard Museum, but we have no means to move or maintain it so had to politely decline. IF the old boat is ever scrapped we would, however, like to have the pilothouse to restore for the museum grounds.
Speaking of the Howard Steamboat Museum, our 16th annual spring festival is this weekend (May 17-18) with the theme being "Celebrating 50 Golden Years". Full information is available on the museum website at www.steamboatmuseum.org, which now includes a column by yours truly entitled "Curator's Corner". And please be sure to mark your calendars for June 28th when my "River Ramblings" progam series will feature Judy Patsch presenting "Rise and Shine for the Streckfus Line" at 3:00 PM. Y'all come!
12/05/2008 8:43 pm
Thanks for the post and the pictures, Keith. What happenned to the MAMIE's engines and other machinery?
Topic starter
13/05/2008 12:09 pm
Bob: The Vollmar Brothers Construction Company (St. Louis) bought the PENNIMAN in 1947 from the St. Louis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1948 she was sold to Spence and Lela Merrell who took her to West Alton, Missouri to become a boat club, which they renamed PIASA. The Barnes engines were removed as were the two Fowler-Wolfe boilers. One of those boilers is still at the boat harbor, standing vertically with a light atop, making a most unusual lighthouse!
The boat was purchased by Dick and Kathy Oberle in 1981 and taken to Eddyville, Kentucky, at which time her original name of MAMIE S. BARRETT was restored. In 1987 the MAMIE was purchased by John and Mary Hoseman, who towed the boat to Vicksburg where she
Topic starter
13/05/2008 12:22 pm
Bob: The Vollmar Brothers Construction Company (St. Louis) bought the PENNIMAN in 1947 from the St. Louis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1948 she was sold to Spence and Lela Merrell who took her to West Alton, Missouri to become a boat club, which they renamed PIASA. The Barnes engines were removed as were the two Fowler-Wolfe boilers. One of those boilers is still at the Harbor Point Marina, standing vertically with a light atop, making a most unusual lighthouse!
The boat was purchased by Dick and Kathy Oberle in 1981 and taken to Eddyville, Kentucky, at which time her original name of MAMIE S. BARRETT was restored. In 1987 the MAMIE was purchased by John and Mary Hosemann, who towed the boat to Vicksburg where she was a restaurant on the Yazoo for several years. For a time she was tied up at Vidalia Dock and Storage before ending up high and dry in the cutoff at Deer Park, Louisiana.
Here's a photo of the PENNIMAN, taken in March, 1947, just after being purchased by the Vollmar brothers.
Topic starter
23/05/2008 6:38 pm
UPDATE: Maria Greer, manager of the Deer Park Campgrounds, reports that, while the flooding Lower Mississippi River has been falling, they are now expecting a two foot rise in the river. This will delay the start of their cleaning and painting of the campground's buildings, after having been submerged by Old Man River. Although there was speculation that the MAMIE might be moved, Maria also conveyed that the old steamboat is still in the spot where she's been resting since the mid 1990's.