Illinois (Towboat/rafter, 1921-1954)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel/Propeller
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat/Rafter
• BUILT: 1921, Stillwater, Minnesota by Marietta Manufacturing Company
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Dismantled, 1954
• OWNERS: 1921: Goltra Line; 1923: Inland Waterways Corporation; 1953: Federal Barge Line
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captains: Carl Cutting, John W. Warren, Chess Wilcox, Charles R. Ford, Buck Weaver and others
• RIVERS: Mississippi River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T1173; She was originally built as a sternwheel, but at some point she was converted to twin propellers. Various experiments were tried on the Illinois; she got pulverizing coal burning equipment at New Orleans in 1927 and a newly designed paddlewheel. Neither proved trustworthy. As a propeller boat she was sent to Kansas City, Missouri in April 1950 with four barges. She arrived there on April 11 and was the largest boat to arrive there in several generations. Captain Ford once took a series of dramatic photographs from the bridge of this boat. The photos were of a tornado sweeping across the Mississippi River at Chalk Bluff on March 15, 1938. She was dismantled in 1954
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Left to right: Missouri; Minnesota; Iowa; Illinois all owned by Federal Barge Lines