Category Archives: General

The American Queen returns to American Rivers

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Now here is some REALLY GOOD NEWS!

The largest steamboat in the world was recently purchased by The Great American Steamboat Company  based in Memphis, Tenn., and it will return to America’s rivers next year.

The steamboat, which is 419 feet long and 90 feet high, holds 436 passengers was purchased for $15.5 million. It was launched in 1995 at a cost of over $65 million, but has been laid up in Beaumont, Texas since 2008, after the Majestic America Line decided to discontinue its cruise business.


“Our plans with it are to restore the service and return it back to its historical roots,” Greg Brown, executive vice-president of the Great American Steamboat Company, said.

“For two years we’ve been working on purchasing the American Queen, so this is the product of a couple years worth of work.” Brown said the American Queen will travel the “greatest hits routes” it used to travel, as well as some of the popular routes once traveled by the Mississippi and Delta Queens. He said itinerary for the American Queen will depend on the season, and it will travel the Mississippi River and many of its surrounding tributaries.

“We have it in the plans to get on the Ohio River for the Kentucky Derby season,” Brown said. “I think we’re a couple weeks away from having a firm schedule and brochure.”

Getting the American Queen up and running is expected to create more than 250 jobs, with 160 of those employees working on the steamboat at all times. Before starting out on cruises, Brown said the American Queen will undergo a $5 million renovation project. He said “she’s in very good condition,” but needs a new coat of paint, some machinery work, new dishes and bath towels, among other things.

Hurrah! for the Great American Steamboat Company. Hurrah! for America Rivers. 🙂

“Toots,” the original RIVERLORIAN for the Delta Queen Steamboat Company has written a memoir of the last cruise of the American Queen. Click link to visit.

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Vicious Storms Spawn Tornado in St. Louis

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I was amazed to read this a.m. of the tornado which destroyed the St. Louis International Airport as well as nearby neighborhoods late Friday night.

Visit www.weather.com for video and forcasts of continuing severe weather through the Easter weekend.

There is about 200% more moisture involved in this stalled front than is normal, which poses a real threat of continuing heavy rain for the next three days. This increases the threat of flooding on the Mississippi and other rivers through the Ohio River Valley.

I have been on the Mississippi River when rains in Kansas caused the Mississippi to raise 30 feet over night… we woke to a river full of floating logs, full sized trees, and other debris picked up by water raising in the back waters.

“Toots” remembers the Delta Queen

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“Toots” Maloy, who for some 30+ years was the “face” of the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen recently sent me her new memoir of her days on the paddlewheelers.


I found it doubly interesting because it was NOT a history of the company, but truly a memoir of her days on the boats, recounted as she made the last river journey of the Delta Queen to its current Tennessee berth.

Toots also serves as our eyes and ears as she gets a last look at the mold-infested shell of the Mississippi Queen. All of us who loved traveling the Delta Queen fleet, who loved traveling with Riverlorians “Toots”,  Bill Wiemuth, and the rest of the crew, will find this a poignant reminder of how much has been lost with the cruising paddlewheelers.

“We haven’t just lost a vessel,” Toots writes, “we lost a way of life. And with just a stroke of a pen it could have been saved.”

Yes, we have Toot’s book available online at our Mississippi River bookstore. Just $7 plus shipping for a limited time. 54 pages, with 8 pages of photos.

Please click on the link below to order instantly online, or phone 888-255-7726.

A Page Out of History

by Riverlorian, Karen “Toots” Maloy

SECURE online Order Form!

As of 2012, the AMERICAN QUEEN will be BACK on American rivers! Click link to see the update.


Sandhills announce SPRING, Eagles nest

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The Canada geese and Sandhill Cranes arrived about 10 days earlier than I expected this year. Ground still frozen, several inches of crusty snow. Three nights ago it was just 15 degrees. They watch the weather currents pretty closely… will delay arrival if they see a storm… so they must know that spring is just around the corner! We’ve located the Valley Bald Eagle’s nest. Believe it is it’s second year. Saw a large handsome eagle standing guard in the neighboring tree last week. Bluebirds and robins abound, but they both spent the entire winter here in the valley. More common than I ever recall during a winter siege!

So, this bird walks into a store……

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This is a fun 2007 video of a real seagull, probably from Scotland, which developed the habit of stealing chips from a neighborhood shop.

The seagull waits until the shopkeeper isn’t looking, and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos.

Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and shared by other birds.

The seagull’s shoplifting started early this month when he first swooped into the store in Aberdeen, Scotland, and helped himself to a bag of chips. Since then, he’s become a regular. He always takes the same type of chips.

Customers have begun paying for the seagull’s stolen bags of chips because they think it’s so funny.

Word is Out! Overnight Cruise boats returning to the Mississippi

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The Spirit of Glacier Bay will be renamed the Spirit of America and sale the Mississippi River, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes... starting in 2011.Starting to hear that two well-known cruise lines are preparing to offer river boat cruises on the Mississippi River next year!

Cruise West is renaming 100-passenger Spirit of Glacier Bay to Spirit of America and starting Mississippi cruises in 2011.

Most Mississippi cruises will go from New Orleans to Memphis or from Memphis to Nashville, with the first cruise being New Orleans to Memphis March 19, 2011. Other introductory cruises are in April and May.

Published fares: $3,499, $3,799, $4,299, and $5,099 per person double occupancy. Discounts may be as high as $600/person.

Cruise West suggests that the Spirit of America may also be found on the East Coast, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Great Lakes. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

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Imperial Moth in Vernon County, Wisconsin

IMPERIAL MOTH SIGHTING

A first sighting of an Imperial Moth has been recorded in Vernon County, Wisconsin, along the Mississippi River.  According to our source, the moths appear to be making a slow progression northward up the river.  It had previously been found in southern Crawford County, the county below Vernon.

 
Have you found a moth or butterfly you’d like to report to someone? The USGS has a link where you can do just that…    Please see http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/faq/report for reporting instructions.
USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure
Big Sky Institute, Montana State University

River tie to Yosemite Nat’l Park

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 Riverbuffs watching Ken Burn’s THE NATIONAL PARKS Sunday evening might be interested to know that the Upper River has a tie to Lafayette Bunnell, who named Yosemite Nat’l Park. From DISCOVER! AMERICA’s GREAT RIVER ROAD, Volume 1, p. 78 . . .

“Five miles south of Winona, in the tiny village of HOMER, MINNESOTA, is the historic “Bunnell  House.” This gothic gem was the home of Willard Bunnell, the first permanent settler and last Indian trader in the area. Bunnell’s brother, Lafayette, was among the men who discovered and gave the name Yosemite to the National Park in California.”

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Here’s the scoop on the Delta Queen.

Delta Queen Steamboat to be Floating Hotel in Chattanooga

Updated: Jan 27, 2009 06:43 PM CST

 

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) – The historic Delta Queen riverboat will call Chattanooga home for a while, as a floating hotel. The leader of a grassroots organization to save the Delta Queen, Vicki Webster, emailed the Channel 3 Eyewitness Newsroom on Tuesday afternoon.

Ambassadors International, Inc. has announced that they have chartered the boat to a company in Chattanooga for use as a hotel.

In a message sent to the boat’s supporters, Webster said, “Our mission is to make sure that indeed, this is a temporary move and the Delta Queen will soon be back in operation, plying the entire Mississippi River system as she has done proudly and safely for 60 years.””

The Delta Queen has been nominated for the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2009 list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in America. The final selections will be announced in April.

Webster said, “There is only one remaining example of the hundreds of steamboats that once traversed our heartland, weaving our nation together in the process. There is only one example of the steamboats that inspired the work of creative giants like Mark Twain, Jerome Kern, Louis Armstrong, Edna Ferber, and Walker Evans. To stand idly by and watch the destruction of the Delta Queen would not only be a betrayal of the Trust’s mission. It would also be an act of pure treachery to our culture, to the pioneers who came before us, and to future generations who deserve the chance to travel on this quintessentially American treasure.””

 

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                      The “Rarest and Cutest” Creature on Earth!
A White Phase Lion cub with siblings!

Do I love this? A white phase lion cub with siblings!!!!

You may know that I have a special interest in “white phase” critters on this earth. On a recent trip south, the airline magazine featured the “cutest and rarest creature on earth.” Guess what? It was a white phase LION cub. The article noted that it was not an albino, but a “white phase” LION due to a recessive gene.To recap, it takes TWO parents with recessive “white phase” genes to produce a “white phase” cub. Why a recessive gene in an African lion???

On a recent birding trip to Panama in December, I was priviledged to sit next to a Smithsonian scientist who had been studying tropical Panama for 30 years. He spoke of the difference between cold weather creatures and tropical creatures. The key word for mammals that must survive in temperate climates is ADAPTABILITY. Tropical plants and animals are experts in finding SPECIALIZED NICHES. Lions have not always been confined to Africa! More about that to come!

Meanwhile, visit our new TRAVEL PHOTO site at www.greatriver.smugmug.com to see photos from the Panama Trip!