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This RPPC on the Avalon just in, says McGregor, Iowa . . . am not positive it was actually taken there but it's a neat image, one of the best in black and white between the boat's Idlewild phase and future incarnation as the Belle of Lou'vull. |
Attached photo I took of a rainbow created by water and sunlight off the sternwheel of the excursion boat Columbia Gorge on the Columbia River last October. The C.G. runs out of her spring/summer/fall base at the town of Cascade Locks, Oregon. On the 4 hour trip I was on, she went downriver (west) and was lowered through the locks at Bonneville Dam, continued west for a spell before turning around and heading back upriver where she got raised back up again at Bonneville en route to home. The scenery of that stretch of river (known of course as the Columbia Gorge) is breathtaking and it was a perfectly beautiful day for it. During the winter the Columbia Gorge is in Portland. This was one of her last trips before the season ended. She's diesel powered but has the authentic look and feel of the old Columbia River steamboats.  This is a favorite that I took aboard the Belle of Louisville in Sept. 1990. |
The Julia Belle Swain tied up at an island in the Mississippi near Galena, Illinois in 1991. |
The Captain of the Julia Belle Swain piloting north of LaCrosse, Wisconsin during a supper cruise I took in Oct. '07. - Dave |
Charleston WV Then and Now, Daily mail 1/29/07  Moored at the Beardstown, Illinois levee on the Illinois River a derelict mini-towboat that has been neglected by the current owner. Wish I had such a boat to restore. The old skiff makes a nice touch. |
Here's another boat photo with a spiritual aura to it . . . I arrived at Keokuk on Friday at sunset before last to attend the Midwest Buffs reception and for about 10 minutes the sun washed the Steamer George M. Verity while those outstanding clouds loomed in the background, only thing missing was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing a Heavenly Jubilation. Hallelujah, the Steamboats are Our Salvation!  Sacramento night. A time exposure taken from the stern of the Delta King with the Spirit of Sacramento behind it, 1992.  Stern view of the George M. Verity (photo by Dave Thomson, 1992). 
Sometime in the '90's I flew into St. Paul and drove from the airport to the Minnesota University where the Gen'l John Newton floated in the Mississippi as a Showboat for the drama dep't. You have a movie still from "The Emigrants"(?) in our museum and some screen captures of a video about the ol' Newton and the fire that destroyed her. Taking the detour to the campus and searching for the boat threw me off my travel schedule but I finally got on the road south to Wabasha, MN where I stayed at the now closed Anderson House hotel which could provide a kitty cat room mate for the night. I had reserved the "star" cat Aloysius (Al - o - wish - us) but the clerks gave him to somebody else so I ended up with little black cat named Cinder who slept so soundly that night that I was afraid she had given up the ghost and I woke her up to make sure she was still among the living. When the hotel closed down (due to the damned "economic downturn") all the cats were adopted by former employees of Anderson House. Damn all the greedy Wall Street mo' fo's for screwing everything up for all of us. |
GEO. M. VERITY head on view I took around '07 at Keokuk. |
Took these of the Scarlett Belle up at Oxnard in '07 while they were putting the finishing touches on her in the boat yard there. Not a living soul around so I was able to walk around and get these. The link below shows how she's become a weddin' type boat. Dave http://scarlettbelle.com/about-us The Scarlett Belle Riverboat Paddlewheeler is a yacht newly built in 2007 in the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard California. She can accommodate 150 guests, climate controlled with heating or air. She cruises inside the Channel Islands harbor taking you thru the waterways and into the newer Westport and sea bridge homes. She has two levels and a wheel house, 2 handicap accessible spacious bathrooms, walk around decks on both upstairs and downstairs and gets lit up with sparkling lights for your event. |
Attached photo I took of the PORTLAND at Portland, Oregon, on the Willamette River in October '06. This was in the morning before she was open for tourists. I stayed in a spiffy old hotel a few blocks away so I could walk down in the morning and luxuriate in seeing the old girl. That lumpy black chef's hat on top of her stock was put there only the week after some drunken local teenager had climbed the ladder on the stack and plummeted down the into the PORTLAND's innards. He was arrested and hospitalized. |
SPRAGUE at Vicksburg, 1968 from a high resolution scan of a vintage Kodachrome slide. |
NICE PHOTO TAKEN UNDER IDEAL LIGHTING CIRCUMSTANCES AND CLEAR VISIBILITY OF BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER. BEAUTIFUL WATER AND NEAT CASCADE OF THE WHEEL AS WELL. TAKEN NEAR THE OHIO RIVERTOWN OF GALLIPOLIS (PRONOUNCED "GALLOP POLICE" BY THE RESIDENTS) ON THE OHIO RIVER. I SWEETENED THE CATHARINE DAVIS A BIT BY BRIGHTENING THE STERN ABOVE THE WHEEL AND THE BOILER DECK BELOW THE HANGING LAUNDRY PLUS THEN I USED A PROTOCOL TO REMOVE WHITE DUST FROM THE SMOKE. THE BULGED OUT CURVE AT THE STERN ABOVE THE WHEEL IS SOMETHING I DON'T RECALL SEEING IN PHOTOS OF ANY STEAMBOAT BEFORE, AN INTERESTING DETAIL WHICH MUST'VE MADE IT MORE DIFFICULT TO CONSTRUCT BUT IT'S NICE TO LOOK AT. ON TOP OF THE PILOT HOUSE OR BETWEEN THE STACK IS A CUT OUT "BULL'S EYE" WITH WHAT IS PROBABLY THE LETTERS "I" AND "C" FOR "ISLAND CREEK COAL COMPANY" WHICH OWNED TWO CONSECUTIVE BOATS NAMED CATHARINE DAVIS WHOSE DATES WERE 1896 - 1928 AND 1928 - 1949. THIS PHOTO LOOKS LIKE IT PROBABLY DATES FROM THE '40'S SO I'D GUESS THIS IS THE SECOND C.D. |
American Queen - Dave took it in 1995 from a little single engine plane flying over the Mississippi above Hannibal with the bran' new American Queen headed upstream towards Quincy, Illinois. 
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