[Larry Durdines]

My friend Jay Mohney operates a wonderful site called Steamboat Building In Elizabeth Pa. His collection of pictures and stories of Steamboating on the Monongahela River is without a doubt one of the most extensive riverboat collections to be found on the internet ( or anywhere else ). A major portion of it is dedicated to the daily shipyard activites at the Elizabeth Marine Ways from 1898 to 1925, and utilizing an ancestors journal it covers boat building and repair and is a most unique and thorough look at that aspect of riverboating. One can spend hours here and only see a small part of the total offered. If they gave a Pulitzer Prize for Steamboat sites this would certainly qualify. He has lately added to this work with the addition of this old video of the Elizabeth Steamboat Parade of 1934. Many sternwheel boats can be seen , including the W H Clingerman (which later became the W.P. Snyder) without her wheel. There are no packet boats shown but the kally-ope lovers will be pleased to see several views of one being played ( on the boiler deck of a towboat no less ! ) The quality of the video varies but sit through short periods of roughness, it's worth it! It is 37 minutes long altogether and with my " basic " high speed connection it took about a minute to load so be patient. This link will take you to the page with the video. Scroll down on that page for much background on the occasion, including clippings from the Waterways Journal and other media, many still photos of boats and more. After that the home page is easily found and from there you can tap into the grey and smokey world of Pittsburgh Steamboats, Enjoy ! Please too, tap out a few words of thanks on his guest book page. Thanks Jay, from everyone who loves a paddlewheel !

The celebration of the 100th anniversary of the town of Elizabeth, PA,which includes a Riverboat parade and a Street parade, took place from July 2 to July 4, 1934. The two parades were filmed using the technology of the day, probably a 16mm movie camera. Sometime during the 1990s two Elizabeth men, Al Zadroga and Vinson Volpi, converted this film to video tape and included a narrative description by Mr. Volpi. You will view over twenty minutes of Steamboats, a fantastic sight, and then about fifteen minutes of the street parade with many of the citizens of 1934 Elizabeth identified by the narrator.