Boat roll on forever (Oh, don’t worry, Mr. Fulton)
(We’ll get your steamboat rolling)
River roll forever (Oh, don’t worry, Mr. Fulton)
(We’ll get your steamboat rolling)
— “Steamboat,” The Beach Boys
When “Mr. Fulton,” aka Robert Fulton, launched the first commercially successful steamboat, the North River, in 1807, he initiated an era of transportation that fueled the United States economy for more than a century and inspired a trove of musical and literary works of art.
Today, only a handful of paddlewheel steamboats are still in operation. One in particular—the Belle of Louisville—can be found moored at the city’s Ohio River shores.
The Beginning
On Oct. 18, 1914, a new steamboat with a steel hull was christened the Idlewild on the Allegheny River. Once shipbuilders James Rees and Sons Company finished construction three months later, the steamboat launched its maiden voyage from Pittsburgh on its way to its first home port in Memphis.
Over the next four decades, the vessel ferried passengers, made excursion cruises, transported freight, towed oil barges and served as a USO nightspot during World War II.
The Idlewild spent some time in Louisville in the early 1930s serving as a ferry between the Rose Island and Fontaine Ferry amusement parks.
According to a 2010 American Society of Mechanical Engineers publication, J. Herod Gorsage of Peoria, Illinois, purchased the vessel in 1947 and renamed it the Avalon in 1948 to grant the deathbed wish of Capt. Ben Winters, who served as the Idlewild’s captain for a brief time.
For the next 14 years, the Avalon traveled among Omaha; New Orleans; Joliet, Illinois; Charleston, West Virginia; Stillwater, Minnesota; and Knoxville, Tennessee.
“She’s been to pretty much every single river system on the eastern side of the country,” said Eric Franz, the Belle of Louisville Riverboats program manager and historian. “She became the most widely traveled steamboat of her kind in the world.”
Hard times befell the steamboat in the late 1950s and early ’60s. Its owners at the time, Steamer Avalon Inc., ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 1962, and the steamboat sold at auction to Jefferson County at the direction of County Judge Marlow Cook for $34,000 (that’s $244,677.27 in today’s money), who renamed it the Belle of Louisville.
“Some people thought that a government should not own a steamboat,” Cook wrote in a 2014 letter to commemorate the Belle’s 100th anniversary. “[My wife] Nancy’s father told me that his friends at the Pendennis Club told him I ‘would never be re-elected to anything.’ Hundreds of people called my office saying I was crazy to waste tax money that way.
“My golf pal Pee Wee Reese, former great Dodgers shortstop, advised me to get a big pigs feet jar from a bar and fill it with pennies. Then I was to place it on my desk and tell every complainer to take out seven cents, the cost to every taxpayer of the county.”
A Rebirth
Cook obtained government funding and local volunteers donated elbow grease for painting, cleaning and other tasks to get the Belle back in operation.
By 1963, she was ready to test the waters once again and face fellow steamboat the Delta Queen in the first-ever Great Steamboat Race, now a beloved Kentucky Derby Festival event that draws crowds to the river to this day.
“The day before the first big race, Nancy and I were on the Belle,” Cook wrote. “She was forward, and I was aft. The stern wheel began slowly turning, over went the lines, and we moved. I ran to join Nancy. We looked at each other with tears in our eyes and yelled, ‘It works!’ ”
But speed wasn’t the paddle wheeler’s strong suit, and the Belle lost to the Delta Queen that year. New boilers were installed in 1968, and the bow was extended 10 feet to give the Belle some added get-up-and-go.
“Her boilers were awful,” Franz said. “She could barely get going on her steam. It got to the point where the Delta Queen was saying, ‘If you guys don’t do something about your boilers, we’re not going to keep doing this because this is not a race.’ We were that slow.”
But the Belle’s engine was just fine. Installed when she was built in 1914, the engine had been brought in from another vessel. The name of that ship is unknown, but the Belle still has the original engine brass plates, and they provide a clue. The shipyard stamp spells Pittsburgh without the “h,” dating the engines somewhere between 1890 and 1911, when the Pennsylvania city used that particular spelling, as seen in the famous 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card.
The Belle’s preservation has garnered several historical designations. It was recognized as the nation’s oldest and most authentic river steamboat and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In 1989, the Belle was named a National Historic Landmark. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has named the Belle a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.
Daniel Lewis, the Belle’s chief engineer, said it can be humbling working on and around such a historic vessel.
“It’s like an archaeology project sometimes, when you come across something, uncover layers of paint to find something underneath that you never expected to be there,” he said. “Of course, there’s some modernization we have to do … But we’re even nervous about drilling through the dance floor when we have to make a hole for something.”
It’s that dance floor that has left an indelible mark in the memories of countless passengers throughout the decades. High school senior cruises, wedding receptions, leisure cruises, field trips and many other special events have taken place on the Belle, and there’s no sign of slowing down.
What’s Ahead
This year’s season for the Belle features traditional afternoon and evening leisure cruises, group events, private bookings and field trips.
One of the newer additions to the steamboat’s schedule is Our River City Cruise. Conducted in partnership with local community organizations, this excursion will treat passengers to a narrated cruise detailing different aspects of Louisville and its strong ties to the Ohio River.
“The idea recently has been to go back to the original intent when [Cook] first purchased the boat, which is to make a cultural and arts and heritage center,” Franz said. “We’ve been bringing on a lot more local live music … connecting with local organizations and tying into the community as much as possible.”
Heather Gotlib, the Belle’s communications and content manager, said ticket prices for various cruises can vary, but most start at $24.99 and increase depending on the type of excursion and meal additions.
“There’s a variety of options because our community’s access to the river is really, really important to what we do,” she said.
To purchase tickets and to see a complete listing of the Belle of Louisville’s 2024 cruise schedule, visit BelleofLouisville.org.