Alton (Packet/Excursion, 1906-1918)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet; Excursion
• BUILT: 1906 in Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard Ship Yards
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Lost in ice on January 29, 1918 at the Duck's Nest, Paducah, Kentucky while moored there in the winter of 1917-1918
• OWNERS: Eagle Packet Company (1906)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Joe McCulloch (pilot, October 1907); Commodore Henry Leyhe (1906-1914)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Illinois River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 0207; Engines made by St. Louis Iron and Machine Company; Fast time Eads Bridge to Alton, 1 hour 44 minutes; designed for the daily trade St. Louis-Alton to replace the Spread Eagle; successfully used as an excursion boat; the Alton ran Mondays to Kampsville and all other days to Six-Mile Island on the Illinois River stopping both ways at Alton and Chautauqua; daily evening trips were run at St. Louis; took part in the Roosevelt Parade in October 1907, sponsored by the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterways Association; the St. Louis Business Men's Association picked up the tab for entertaining Theodore Roosevelt who rode the Mississippi while 14 governors rode the Alton; they started at Keokuk on October 1, 1907 and ended at Memphis on the 4th; Joe McCulloch was the pilot and was extensively written up in Everybody's Magazine issue of April 1908; the Alton collided with the Alton, Illinois bridge with extensive damage to her port wheelhouse and cabin on July 12, 1909; homeport or owner's residence circa 1906, St. Louis, Missouri; original price $19,950
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Interior cabin of the Alton during construction