Steamboating on the Mississippi River Sternwheelers

Cruising the Mississippi River creates a romantic image of 19th Century Americana, reminiscent of Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi.

Especially on board a steam-powered paddlewheeler, such as the legendary Delta Queen.

Growing up in Kentucky not far from the confluence of the Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, I dreamed about someday traveling down the Mississippi River on a riverboat.

Later, I lived in a Minnesota river town on the banks of the Upper Mississippi, and now I’m working on a novel that features a paddlewheel tourboat on an Iowa lake. I still have not ridden on the Delta Queen, but I have had the opportunity to take a short cruise on a boat with a paddlewheel.

For some reason, watching the paddles spinning through the water fascinates me. The paddlewheel propels the boat forward (or backward when necessary), but what powers the huge wheel to create the motion?

Ben Campbell steamship at landing about 1850, image restored from daguerreotype. Library of Congress archives

Ben Campbell steamship at landing about 1850, image restored
from daguerreotype. Library of Congress archives

It turns out paddlewheels have been used to move boats for centuries, but it wasn’t until the steam engine was applied to power the wheel, in the early 1800s, that they became practical. Early versions on the Mississippi used wood, which was readily available along the river. Later, coal was used to generate the steam, but 4.5 to 14.5 tons of coal per day were required to keep their engines running.

The paddles could be located on the sides of the boat (sidewheelers) or mounted at the rear (sternwheelers). But the latter style was more common in the central part of the continent. They had flat bottoms and shallow hulls designed to carry large loads on generally smooth and occasionally shallow rivers.

Rivers were the “freeways” of the 1800s. Travel was faster and much more comfortable on the big riverboats than by any other means. Because of the sternwheeler's design, the Mississippi was opened to river traffic from New Orleans all the way to Minnesota. By the 1850s, hundreds of riverboats were landing in St. Paul with all types of goods and thousands of people.

On its tributaries, such as the Ohio and Missouri, cargo and passengers were carried from Pittsburgh to Cairo, and from St. Louis to Kansas City and beyond.

Passengers who wanted to get from one place to another as cheaply as possible spent their time aboard near the cargo on the main deck. Only the rich could afford a cabin on an upper deck with dining in the grand salon.

Delta Queen docked at New Orleans, 2007. Photo by Joe Ross,
 Lansing, Michigan, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

In my mind, the Delta Queen epitomizes the grandeur of luxury travel during that time. It’s the last remaining historical steamboat capable of overnight cruises, and is a National Historic Landmark.

The Delta Queen and her identical twin the Delta King – called the million dollar boats – were fabricated in Scotland and Germany and assembled in 1927 in California. She remained in California until 1948, when she was relocated to New Orleans as a tourist boat on the inland waterways.

The elegant interior of the Delta Queen, with intricately carved stair railings and grand staircase,
outdid other luxury steamboats of the era. Delta Queen Steamboat Co. photo

No expense was spared in outfitting the Delta Queen with the finest appointments, such as teak handrails, Tiffany-style stained glass, and crystal chandeliers. Throughout the boat, the fittings are brass and the posts and paneling are either oak or mahogany. She is 285 feet long, 60 feet wide and has a height of 66 feet to the top of the smokestack. There are 88 staterooms for a total of 176 passengers.

At this time (2025), the Delta Queen is undergoing a multi-million-dollar refurbishing, but when complete, the company again plans to offer three- to seven-day cruises.

At several locations along the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland, among others, you can ride a replica of a paddlewheel steamboat. One- to two-hour sightseeing excursions, lunch or dinner cruises, and sunset cruises are typically offered. These days, most are powered by diesel fuel, not steam.

The Delta Queen features the typical red paddles
of historical sternwheeler steamboats. Delta Queen
 Steamboat Co. photo

If you’re lucky enough to ride on one with a working paddlewheel, be sure to notice the mist of the water as it rushes along the bright red paddles. It’s a delightful experience that will take you back to the golden age of steam-powered riverboats on the inland waterways of America.

You may also enjoy these posts:

Heroes, Heroines, and History: Full Steam Ahead: Steamboats on the Hudson by Laurie Alice Eakes

and

Heroes, Heroines, and History: Steamboats and Indian Wars--by Jennifer Uhlarik 

Sources:

Steamboat - Wikipedia
Steamboating the Rivers - Steamboats.org
Mississippi River Boat History, Minnesota | Padelford Riverboats
Delta Queen Steamboat Company | Overnight Steamboat

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

Her historical short story, “All That Glistens,” was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.

Mark Twain's First Love: The Girl Who Became Becky Thatcher

Mark Twain in front of his boyhood home in Hannibal (1902); public domain image

Mark Twain’s wry wit and quick humor made him a celebrity in his time. His deep understanding of the human condition infused the books he wrote, earning them a place among the classics. Although Twain departed from this Earth on March 21, 1910, his quotes resound today. Who doesn’t smile at: “Man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to.” This quip provides food for thought: “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Here’s my personal favorite: “Books are the liberated spirits of men.”

A figure like Mark Twain can seem larger than life, much like the characters he created. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn remain with us long after we read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Who can forget Huck fishing by the river or Tom tricking his friends into whitewashing his aunt’s fence? We may grow up, but in true Peter-Pan fashion, those two never will.

The appeal of Twain’s characters might be due to the fact that he based them on people he actually knew. Twain drew Huck Finn from a childhood friend, the son of an sawmill worker with a drinking problem. In his autobiography, Mark Twain (or Samuel Langhorne Clemens—his birth name) admitted: “In Huckleberry Finn I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was.” 

The origins of Tom Sawyer are a subject of debate, but Smithsonian Magazine claims to have solved the riddle. Tom Sawyer, Samuel Clemen’s firefighter friend, was a hero credited with saving 90 lives during the sinking of the steamship “Independence.” However, some believe that Samuel drew from his own childhood to create his fictional Tom Sawyer. He must have liked to honor people he admired by naming characters after them, as he later named one of his characters after the girl who inspired Becky Thatcher.

(Anna) Laura Hawkins was only a couple of years old when she moved with her family from Georgetown, Kentucky to Hannibal, Missouri. Laura lived in a two-story frame house on Hill Street, across from the Clemens home. She and Samuel became childhood sweethearts. Here's Laura's account of her early romance (with a few typo corrections) which appeared in the Norfolk Post, Number 223, 27 February 1922: “Mark and 1 started going to school the same year,” Mrs. Frazier says. "He was seven and I was six. Our houses were across the street from each other right here in Hannibal. Mark had long, golden curls hanging over his shoulders. He used to carry my books to school every morning and carry them home in the afternoon. And he’d treat me to apples and oranges and divide his candy with me. In the winter Mark spent most of his time on the ice. I couldn’t skate, he always arranged for mo to go along. He used to push me along the ice on a split-bottom chair. He was a fine skater, too; in fact, he was good at anything he undertook. The first time I ever saw Mark was on a hot summer day. He came out of his house and started showing off, turning handsprings and cutting capers. His heel hit me and I was thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious. I recall hearing the children talking about how scared Mark was.”

Laura Hawkin's Hannibal home, the "Becky Thatcher House), photograph by Andrew Balet, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Tragedy struck the Clemens household in 1847. John Marshall Clemens, Samuel’s father, died of pneumonia. To help his family, Samuel left school at age 11 and took a job as a printer’s apprentice for a newspaper. He went to work as a typesetter for his older brother, Orion, who owned a local paper. He wrote short, satirical pieces for his brother’s paper. Samuel left Hannibal in 1853 at age 17 and shifted about working as a printer. In 1857, he apprenticed as a Mississippi steamboat pilot.

Samuel took his pen name during his steamboat employment. “Mark twain” meant “two fathoms, or 12 feet, which was a safe depth for a steamboat.

Laura went on to higher studies at Van Rensselaer Presbyterial Academy in Rensselaer, Missouri. She married James W. Frazer, a physician, in 1858. They had two children, both sons.

Samuel lost his younger brother, Henry, following a boiler explosion on the steamboat “Pennsylvania.” Although heartbroken, Samuel got his pilot’s license in 1859. He worked along the Mississippi until the Civil War ended commercial steamboat traffic in 1861. 

Samuel joined his brother, Orion on a westward journey that he detailed in his semi-autobiographic book, “Roughing It.” Life in the West brought many adventures his way. He gained prominence in 1865 after an author friend invited him to contribute to a book. Samuel sent a lively account of the Calaveras County Jumping Frog Contest that essentially launched his own writing career.

Mark Twain at age 31 in 1867; public domain image

In 1870, the evening before he married Olivia “Livy” Langdon, Samuel scribbled something on a note card, which he then sealed and mailed it to Laura Hawkin’s brother in Hannibal with instructions to deliver it to her. Whatever that note contained went to the grave with them both.

Olivia Langdon (1845-1904) at about 24 years old, taken on October 29, 1869; public domain image 

We don't know much about the adult life of Laura Hawkins Frazer. Her husband died in 1875. Later, in 1895, Laura hired on as matron of a Hannibal home for orphans and indigent.  

Samuel and Olivia seemed to have a happy marriage, although tragedy did touch them. The first of their children, a boy they named Langdon, suffered from fragile health. He died of diphtheria at 19 months, leaving his distraught parents. They consoled themselves by doting on his younger sister, Olivia Susan “Susy.” Two more girls joined the family. Clara acquired the nickname “Bay” for her older sister’s pronunciation of "baby." Jane, the youngest, suffered from epilepsy. Both Susy and Jane died in their twenties. Clara lived a long life and died at 88. Her daughter, Nina Gabrilowitsch had no children. Samuel Clemens’s line died out with her passing in 1966.

Olivia, always frail, died in 1904. She may have suffered a heart attack. As her health took a turn for the worse, doctors recommended she keep away from her husband to avoid becoming overexcited. She and Samuel went months without seeing one another, but he broke the rule to exchange love letters and kisses.

Samuel visited Laura Hawkins Frazer in Hannibal in 1902. Life had carried them apart, and this was the first they’d seen of one another in 50 years.

Photograph taken in 1902 of Mark Twain with Anna Laura (Elizabeth) Hawkins Frazer; public domain image

Laura and Samuel got together again in 1908 in Redding Connecticut, four years after Olivia's death. Although Samuel and Laura never revived their romance, they remained friends. In the end, he imparted to her something of his own fame by immortalizing her in his writing.

About Janalyn Voigt

Escape into creative worlds of fiction with Janalyn Voigt. Her unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and fantasy creates worlds of beauty and danger for readers. The Montana Gold series explores the faith, courage, and loves of an Irish-immigrant family making a way for themselves in the Wild West. Tales of Faeraven, her medieval epic fantasy series, carries the reader into a land only imagined in dreams. When she's not writing, Janalyn loves spending time discovering the great outdoors.

Learn more about Janalyn Voigt and her books.

Steamboats of Geneva Lake -- Not Just for Pleasure

I'm currently in the midst of book deadlines and preparing for a slide presentation at the library in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, my hometown and the setting for several of my books. This month I'm reposting a post I wrote back in May 2015, about the steamboats the plied the waters of Geneva Lake back in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. I speak of these yachts in my presentation and I think it's worth repeating the post here.

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With it’s proximity to Chicago, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin has always been a magnet to Chicagoans as a close-in getaway. As far back as the 1860s, wealthy Chicago businessmen were traveling north over the state line to spring-fed Geneva Lake where they could hunt and fish and get away from the stress of business for a few days. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire caused many of these men to purchase virgin forestland along the lakeshore and build magnificent homes for their families. The families used these homes while the city of Chicago was being rebuilt, and when they were finally able to return to the city, they kept the homes as their summer “cottages." The families lived at the lake throughout the hot summer, and the dads commuted by train from downtown Chicago to the lake for the weekend. 

A depiction of people coming from the train depot in Williams Bay (off-screen to the left) and walking to their boats

Back then, very few roads to the lakeshore estates were built, and having a boat to access the property was a necessity. During the week, the boats were used to take family and servants into town for supplies and other errands. Then on Friday afternoons, the yachts would travel to Williams Bay, a small village near the west end of the lake, where the train depot was conveniently located across the road from the lake, to meet the men.  

As time moved into the mid 20^th Century, some of these yachts were acquired by a local boat company and repurposed with gas engines as excursion boats to serve the many tourists with tours of the lakeshore to see the beautiful homes they otherwise would never see. 

This double-decker vessel, The Harvard, is one of a few steamers that were specially built as excursion boats. It was built in 1899, and plied the waters until 1931, when old age dictated it needed to come out of service. 

The original Walworth doing service as the mail boat.

The boat on the right once served a large mansion on the lake and later became the Walworth, better known as the "mail boat." Since the early 1900s, every summer a boat delivers the mail to lakeshore residents. This began when there were no roads, but the tradition continues today. Nowadays, a vessel called the Walworth II serves as the mail boat. Young men and women called mail jumpers leap from the slow-moving boat to each dock on the route, stuff mail in a mailbox affixed to a pier post, then leap back on the boat before it moves away from the dock. As a child growing up in Lake Geneva, it was exciting to take this boat trip, and many years later, I still find it so.

Photo by Pamela S. Meyers

To this day, several yachts from the late 19^th century are still available for chartered events on the lake. This is the Polaris, that was once owned by Otto Young who built the large estate known now as Stone Manor. This vessel is lovingly cared for and preserved. It received a "makeover" in 2014 and is still in service today. Sometimes I like to look at it and imagine the days of old when ladies in their bustled dresses and men in coat and tie used it to travel to and from the train or maybe just to take a pleasure ride. Oh, the stories this boat could tell. (the paddle wheel vessel behind the Polaris is the Lady of the Lake, inspired by another paddle wheel by the same name that used to sail Geneva Lake.)

If you are in the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin area, check out the excursion boat rides that are in operation from April to the end of October (and sometimes even later if weather permits) at Lake Geneva Cruise Line.

Credits:

Postcards from Author’s Collection

Photo of Smyth home: Lake Geneva, Newport of the West, Volume 1, Ann Wolfmeyer and Mary Burns Gage, 1976, Lake Geneva Historical Society

A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago with her two rescue cats. Her novels include Surprised by Love in Lake Geneva and Safe Refuge, both historicals set in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. When she isn’t at her laptop writing her latest novel, she can often be found nosing around Wisconsin and other midwestern spots for new story ideas.