This actual race was made famous by the print maker Courier & Ives. The heavily stylized print showed the two steamers, racing along close to each other in the moonlight. In actuality, the only time they were within sight of each other was at the start.

John Cannon, owner of the ROB’T. E. LEE, arranged for coal and wood barges to be brought out and unloaded while LEE was under way. He carried few passengers and no freight. Thomas (T. P.) Leathers did none of the sort. He carried passengers and freight and made a number of stops along the way. The actual time a NATCHEZ trip was underway was less than LEE’S.

Cannon, of the LEE, died broke.

Captain T. P. Leathers, of the NATCHEZ, died a millionaire.

Cannon forgot the steamboats were businesses, not race horses.

The race got underway from the foot of Canal Street at 5 p.m.At the beginning of the race, LEE backed out around the NATCHEZ stern, thus trapping her for almost five minutes. Although crowds lined the waterfront, no photos of the start of the race have survived and only one was taken of LEE, but it was from far away – just below St. Louis. The St. Louis Cathedral and Pontabla Apartments show in the painting, along with oyster skiffs, which are tied in front of Jackson Square.

Carlisle & Finch Company of Cincinnati, Ohio have made spotlights for the marine industry for
119 years. The same family has owned the company throughout its life. I have been privileged to know these people and am honored to see my work hanging in their board room. The evolution of the marine spotlight has gone from a weak, dispersed light with little real distance distinction to the cold, intense long-distance beam shown in this painting. It is a night symbol of the river as you will often see aboard the American Queen.

Just for fun, the beam in the image has been enhanced with luminescente paint to glow on its own, even after the lights have been turned down in the room.

I enjoyed painting this work and spent an evening atop the machine shop of one of the Corps of Engineers buildings, looking for an idea that would speak to genuine rivermen. I have succeeded here and am proud to have created a work that will out live me. Real rivermen, with rough hands and a wealth of common sense, just love what I have accomplished here. The painting isn’t of any single tow, rather any towboat from any firm on the inland rivers.

Hand re-touched giclée mounted (or stretched)
on canvas, framed as shown with title plate, sized 48 x 26
inches, plus frame size: $1,350
(shipping and crating not included).

I wanted to show a hot day, and it had to be from the summer of 1934. It was the only year the steamer ST. PAUL came to the Upper Mississippi River after the completion of the Lock and Dam at Rock Island. It was also the only year Captain Frederick Way Jr. was pilot for Vern Streckfus. I knew Capt. Way, so I came by the tale personally.

The ST. PAUL was built in St. Louis in
1882 by legendary businessman Diamond Jo Reynolds for the St. Louis New Orleans packet trade. She lasted as a packet until 1911, when Streckfus Steamers bought her. Commodore John Streckfus supervised the stripping of her passenger cabins in the slough behind Credit Island in Davenport, Iowa. He converted her to an excursion steamer with a vast dance floor, open deck, arcades and dining facilities throughout the boat.

Mostly the ST. PAUL ran the harbor cruises in St. Louis. When one of the other Streckfus Steamers was laid up for repairs, ST. PAUL would take her place. In 1937, she was sent to Pittsburgh for repair and renamed SENATOR. She remained in the Ohio River Excursion trade until she was retired in 1943. Her stripped hull was abandoned below St. Louis in 1953.

There is something so lovely and evenly balanced about this painting. When I painted it, I did so without first studying her. But it flowed from my brush like it wanted to be seen, which really represents what I wanted to do when I first picked up a paint brush.

Hand re-touched giclée on mounted canvas (or stretched),
including frame and brass title plate as shown, 50 X 26 inches,
plus frame: $1,450 (plus shipping and crate).

Downbound just above the great Memphis Bridge, a commercial towboat casts an admiring eye on the vintage propulsion system of the Steamer DELTAQUEEN. I dedicated this painting to contemporary boatmen who manned the hundreds of work-aday vessels, forming the backbone of
commerce on our inland rivers system.

Federal law allows the DELTA QUEEN to immediately go to the head of the line during backups on the river, due to low water. Even though it is legal, the law is not regarded with favor by many in the commercial river business who may have been in line for several hours to several days. The extreme low water at Memphis in the 1980’s sometimes backed up traffic for
three or four days.

Of all the work I have done, this has been the contemporary river painting that people hold most dear. It bridges the gap between steam and diesel propulsion. The deliberate sabotage to the exemption certificate DELTA QUEEN held by political bullies in Washington destroyed the careers of hundreds of her employees and passengers who cherished the annual expeditions on the river. (Ask me how
I really feel!)

Hand re-touched giclée on mounted or stretched canvas with
brass title plate,
sized 24 X 48 inches, plus frame: $1,650
(Shipping not included).

Hand re-touched giclée on mounted or stretched
canvas with brass title plate sized 48 x 28 : $1,450
(shipping and crate not included).

New Orleans is an intricate web of exotic names, larger than life people and architecture found nowhere else in America. Restaurants excel just to survive.

Creole cooking finds a way to remix ingredients in a very special way.  This is all bound together in a love/hate/fear relationship with the Mississippi River and the storms that come rolling in off the Gulf of Mexico. Huge levees usually keep the river where it belongs and serve to separate the two so capturing both by the hand of the artist is no small feat.

In the scene we are looking toward the river down St. Peter Street. Crossing in front of the Cathedral is Chartres Street.  Off in the distance are the Steamers NATCHEZ & DELTA QUEEN. To the left is Cafe Du Monde. Flanking Jackson Square are the Pontalba Apartments West & East.  In the lower right is the Petite Theatre.   Across St. Peter is the Spanish Cabildo and next to it is the creamy white stucco of St. Louis Cathedral.  All of these names are familiar to those who live in the city or love to visit (me).  In reality the seawall (levee) in front of Jackson square across Decatur Street is much larger than painted.

Hand retouched canvas giclée on mounted or stretched canvas
sized 26 X 50 inches plus frame with brass title plate.
$1650 plus shipping

It was 1933 just yesterday. The Dixieland jazz from the dance floor can almost be heard as the magnificent J. S. backs away from the STRECKFUS landing just below the Eads Bridge in St Louis. In the foreground, the massive steamer CAPITOL lies darkened as she is updated for the coming season of “tramping” on the Upper Mississippi. The J. S. originally came out as the QUINCY, built for the Diamond Jo Lines in Dubuque, Iowa in 1896.

She was converted to an excursion boat by the Streckfus family, who bought her in 1911. Much of her career was spent doing “Moonlight Cruises” in the port of St. Louis. Every few years, she “tramped” to the Ohio or the Upper Mississippi. The boat was named after John Streckfus. He took great pride in her upkeep. He even had the beam of the stern narrowed considerably to give her the look of a sleek Hudson River Steamer. Romantics believe that a boat can live on forever, but it is not so.

The J. S. lasted until 1939, her wooden hull having seen all the stress it could take.

The hand retouched giclée on mounted canvas or stretched
and framed as shown, sized 26 x 50 inches, plus frame
with brass name plate: $,1450 (plus shipping and crate).

The famed excursion steamer CAPITOL is awaiting passengers at Jackson St. Landing. The foreground sports boats from the nationally known St. Paul Yacht Club. This club boasts the largest fleet of privately owned stern- wheeled boats on the Mississippi River.

It is of interest that the original painting was commissioned by the late Captain William Bowell, owner of the Paddleford Packet Company. The little popcorn wagon in the foreground, made to look like a castle, is where young Bill spent several of his summers. Stories of Capt. Bowell are legend around St. Paul as well as up and down the river

The hand retouched giclée on mounted canvas or stretched
and framed as shown, sized 26 x 50 inches, plus frame
with brass name plate: $,1450 (plus shipping and crate).