"What Is It?" returns

Judy,

It is a rosette from the wire mesh railing of the Str. IDLEWILD.

Travis

P.S. To get the snickers bar back...figure out how I knew!

Travis, I suspect it is because you have one, as do I. Mine came from Mr. Avalon himself.

Glad Judy started this...my Halloween stash was getting low!

Rosettes from the good Doctor

Yep, I imagine quite a few of us have one of these thanks to Doc. He has always been so generous in sharing his steamboat artifacts. The director of the Dubuque museum has been courting him for years to get him to donate his stuff there, I don't know if he's succeeded, but they'll be surprised how little there is because he has shared so much with us over the years. I have often packed that rosette as a good luck charm when traveling. In my garage sits a roll of that wire, complete with rosettes and 20 coats of paint, which came from Dorothea Frye's basement. That may be used sometime in my garden, along with several other steamboat artifacts which reside there due to being too heavy/cumbersome to get into the house.

Round 2

OK, so that was too easy. Here's What Is It #2:
It's perched atop one of my big portfolios of posters, and the orange/white thing behind it is a Paddlewheel Society souvenir throw from the 1990s, neither of which has anything to do with the object!

A piece of a cabin arch? From the GCG, maybe?

Judy, that's the piece of the cabin arch from the ROBT. E LEE, right? I took a lot of pictures, but I didn't write anything down, so I'm goin off of memory here

Cabin arch

That is correct - looks like my collection has been photographically inventoried pretty well. Back in 1996? John Hartford performed during the Steamboat History Weekend in Louisville. In one of his numbers, he asked people to bring their souvenirs from the LEE up on stage to recreate the boat. I hadn't 'acquired' my cabin arch then, but there were quite a few people with LEE remnants there. When I give a steamboat history talk, I always take this with, and of course it draws ughs until I explain from whence it came...

#3 What Is It?

I don't know how well these will show up, but name the boat from whence it came:

Judy,

Actually, mine came from Marietta. I got it as a gift from a Antiques dealer up the hill who 'just knew I already had one". Well, I didn't! It came home on the DELTA QUEEN...and somewhere I have a picture of it mounted on her railing. I couldn't help myself...it had to adorn another railing before I added it to my collection.

Travis

Judy,

You have me stumped here. The dates don't add up to anything I am thinking. Perhaps the W.J. QUINLAN? This is just a guess.

Travis

GCG boilers--the set that made it to the Avalon?

Dan,

I had thought that myself...but, the dates didn't add up. Of course, I could be wrong on this one. From what I can get together with my home library, the date on the placquard is too late to be the GCG's burlers. However, since someone else is thinking the same way I was...perhaps..?

Travis

Travis Vasconcelos;19270 wrote: Dan,

I had thought that myself...but, the dates didn't add up. Of course, I could be wrong on this one. From what I can get together with my home library, the date on the placquard is too late to be the GCG's burlers. However, since someone else is thinking the same way I was...perhaps..?

Travis

Yes, The GCG is correct. The boilers were moved onto the AVALON in 1954, and removed from the BELLE in 1965.
I guess the year 1941 is the problem, Travis? That leads me to this question(s):
Were the boilers on the new CAPE GIRARDEAU made new for her? How long did she have those boilers? Did this set replace the originals, or was there another set prior to these?

The CAPE GIRARDEAU came out in 1923 at Howard's with three new boilers, but her engines were from the FERD HEROLD. As many know, the CAPE became the GORDON C. GREENE in 1935 and burned coal until early 1941, when four new oil fired boilers were placed on her at Gallipolis.

The 1941 boilers from the GORDON, transferred over to the AVALON at Owensboro in 1954, were removed, as Judy noted, from the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE in 1965 when new (and woefully inadequate) boilers were installed. These were replaced in January, 1968 by a set of new Western Rivers type boilers built by the Nooter Corporation of St. Louis. Those boilers are still in use aboard the BELLE.

Perfessor Keith,

Mystery solved! I didn't know about the Gallipolis boiler replacement. Didn't find it in the library either...good work!

Travis

There were rolls and rolls of that wire, complete with rosettes, that were removed from the AVALON at the end of the '59 season ( I believe), and they rested on the GLS wharfboat, and I could have gotten all I desired, but, alas, I had nowhere to store it.