Gracie Kent (Excursion boat/Packet/Towboat, 1897-1908)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Excursion boat/Packet/Towboat
• BUILT: Stillwater, Minnesota 1897
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Sank below Baldwin, Louisiana and was dismantled 1908
• OWNERS: Captain John Kent (1897); Captain W. S. Cory (fall of 1898); Burnside and Donaldsonville Packet Company (1899); Captain Oscar Blanchard, Raymona Lumber Company (1908)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain John Kent (master); Captain Oscar Blanchard (master 1908)
• RIVERS: St. Croix River; Atchafalaya River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 2412; Built by John Kent? Another source claimed she was built by George Muller for the Interstate Navigation Company operating between Stillwater and Taylors Falls. There are two stories one tells of it taking a load of potatoes and apples to New Orleans in November 1897 and the other says she made a trip south in the fall of 1898 with several barges of Stillwater-grown potatoes. Then she was sold in Louisiana to the Burnside and Donaldsonville Packet Company ran her 1899. Captain Oscar Blanchard purchased her in 1908 and used her as a log boat with a tow post behind the pilothouse
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Landing at Interstate Park on the Dalles of the St. Croix River