Lone Star Pictorial

[Jerry Canavit]

Judy, David and other UMR folks - you should check out Tony Kelly's web page about the sternwheel towboat LONE STAR. Tony has posted about 60 photographs taken just before the vessel was retired from service in 1967. Go to tonykelly.com for a look-see.
There are some very nice images. Sure brings back some good memories.

[Judy Patsch]

LONE STAR

Thanks for that great source - I just glanced at the pix now, but will study them later. There's one b&w with kids playing in front of the boat, can't figure where that was taken. I was concerned several years ago that the LS would rot away into oblivion, but the glass enclosed area and the repairs they have made, and the marvelous displays surrounding her will preserve her for us. I don't know if you've been up here lately, Jerry, but she's a must-see now. She'll be the star attraction for our Midwest Buffs meeting in LeClaire June 3-4.

[Steve Huffman]

In that B&W photo, it looks like those kids are cutting ice blocks, to be taken to an ice house, with a gas-powered saw. Can't be sure, but that's how they used to do it on the lakes in northern Indiana. Except on the lakes they would take a Model T, remove one rear wheel and afix a huge circular saw blade in its place, and cut the ice that way.

Thanks for sharing the link to these LS photos, Jerry. They are superb!

[Ron Anderson]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I thoroughly enjoyed those pics.
Her paddle wheel really kicks up a fuss!

[Judy Patsch]

Upon further review...

Just took time to look more closely at these pix. Wow. I just wish there were captions with names and places. The LONE STAR was a simple little boat, a minimalist, and these pix show that. For years she sat up on the bank by the Buffalo Bill Museum, rotting away. In fact back in the early 1980s Keith and I were touring her and we stepped off the main path and almost went through the rotten decking. It is so great to see her now, encased in an unusual-looking but quite utilitarian glass house, with many repairs already done and more underway. Things are well marked and explained, and you can crawl all over the boat, except in the pilothouse. Bubba Dow did just that back in July '09 prior to our SoP trip, and I think he only took a thousand or so shots. The LONE STAR was a local boat, just worked in pools 14-15-16, pushing 3 or 4 barges loaded with sand or gravel. She was the last steam sternwheel towboat to operate on the UMR.

[Frank X. Prudent]

What a service Tony Kelly did some forty years ago by photo documenting the little LONE STAR. We owe him much gratitude today.

Did anyone notice that one of the photos is upside down, and if so which one?

[Keith Norrington]

What FABULOUS photos! Superb photography indeed, and these fascinating images tell a wonderful story even without captions. You can almost "hear" them! Thank you Tony Kelly! And much appreciation to Jerry for alerting us to this treasure trove!

I was last aboard the LONE STAR on June 19, 1981, with Judy, and the boat was in an extremely deteriorated condition, to the point of her decks being dangerous in places. They almost waited too late, but thank goodness wise heads prevailed and finally built a "display case" around her, restoring and preserving the last operating steam towboat on the UMR for posterity. I always enjoyed passing Le Claire at night on the DELTA QUEEN, as the LONE STAR looked much better in the dark, dimly illuminated, including her red/green stack lanterns and the amber light between the stacks.

The steering levers on the LONE STAR are a product of the S.J. Gardner Foundry and Machine Company, manufacturers of steam steering gear for riverboats and a waterfront business for many decades here on the Ohio River in my hometown of New Albany, Indiana. Two of my great uncles, now long deceased, were employed by the Gardner firm, and Uncle Raymond was an installer of the steam steering gear.

[David Tschiggfrie]

Absolutely outstanding! Thank you, Tony, for capturing these intimate, everyday glimpses of work-a-day steamboating on the UMR. That second shot served as the photo postcard of the boat which was sold years ago at the Buffalo Bill Museum and which also appeared in some newspaper stories about her. And the views of Capt. Glenn Johnson in the PH bring back delightful memories of last year's videotaped interview with Glenn which he graciously gave for the Oral History collection at Dubuque's National Mississippi River Museum. In addition to these great images of the boat at work, Bill Talbot (of Keokuk's Lee County Historical Society) made a 20-minute narrated tape recording of sounds aboard the boat weeks before she went out of service. Thankfully, there were people like Tony and Bill who had the presence of mind to capture this part of our river heritage while it was still there to be preserved alive! These images and sounds might provide the nucleus for a great future program at MRB or even S&D. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if the REFLECTOR gets wind of these discoveries and puts them to use!