[W.R. Dancey]

Since I live so close to the Illinois River, and since photos, information, and stories are relatively hard to come by, I thought it might be in order to start a thread about this great waterway! Just for general discussion, photos, and stories like I said. Maybe even the history of some of the steamers. I have a great book that was published a few years back that talks relatively briefly about steamboating and the I&M Canal. From it, i learned a bit about some of the popular steamers: Columbia, David Swain, Fred Swain, Borealis Rex, Watkins, and City of Peoria. It was not very in depth, however, and also mentioned the LaSalle steamboat basin that backs up to the I&M. Again, this is for all general discussion about the Illinois River Packets!

Liam