Oriole (Towboat/Snagboat/Dredge, 1908-1941)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat/Snagboat/Dredge
• BUILT: 1908-1914 by Mississippi Transportation Company at Aitken, Minnesota. Designed by Captain Charles D. Viebahn
• OWNERS: 1910: USE, St. Paul; 1918: George Matoon
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Big Sandy Lake
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T1969; She was purchased in 1910 by USE, St. Paul at Libby, Minnesota and first carried as a survey steamer. She was listed as a snagboat in 1914 and by 1916 she had been rebuilt into a bucket dredge. George Matoon, a Big Sandy Lake resort owner, bought the Oriole minus her machinery in 1918 and used her as a summer hotel on the bank, until summer of 1941. The pilot wheel is now in the visitor's museum of Sandy Lake lock house