Column by The Post's Jan Perry
We live close enough to the Ohio that we can hear the mellow bellows of the riverboats as they announce their arrivals and departures. Needless to say, the blasts are nearly nonstop when the fleet of sternwheelers, sidewheelers and the few fauxwheelers gathers at the river during the Tall Stacks celebration.
In honor of our floating guests I thought you might enjoy a few sites that put perspective on the vessels that helped put Cincinnati on the map.
• www.tallstacks.com. Nowhere to start but at the official web site for Tall Stacks Music, Arts and Heritage Festival. First and foremost, each of the 17 participating boats has its own page where you can see a wonderful up-close photo, find out all the vital statistics for the vessel and then check out the availabilities for special cruises. (If you're even thinking of doing it, look now and book fast because seats are getting extremely tough to find.) Explore a little farther and you'll discover a listing of shore-bound performers and daily stage-by-stage schedule for the entertainment on tap throughout the weekend. (And with more than 75 acts confirmed, it's like my Dad used to say, you can't tell the players without a program.)
There's a history of riverboating along with information about Ohio's Bicentennial Bell, cleaned, polished and rung for the first time Thursday at the river. You can also make a virtual visit to "Sawyertown," before taking a trip to the real thing at the river. This is great for teacher/student or parent/child pairs with descriptions of the 10 hands-on educational play stations in the actual Procter & Gamble-sponsored area at the river.
• www.vrcincinnati.com/TallStacks/staxbell.htm. If you couldn't be on hand to see the last Tall Stacks celebration first hand, you might want to spend a little time at this clever site. See several 360-degree views from the 1999 event. My favorite is the river scene taken from the bow of the Belle of Louisville. Follow directions to close in for detail, but you'll need to zoom back out to see the sun's rays reflected on the river.
• www.steamboats.com. Perfect for history lovers, riverboat buffs or teachers looking for a great aid to use in transportation lesson planning, this site is truly a virtual museum specializing in steamboats. With hundreds of photos, thousands of interesting facts and all sorts of links to other related pages, this is a magnificent tribute to the glory days of life on the river.
• www.steamboats.org. Another wonderful site simply stuffed with all sorts of interesting information including a glossary of steamboat terms, a data base on boats past and present and a "river library" that lists books on all aspects of steamboating. Then there's the "dressed up" side of the site, which offers interactive boat models, whistles and calliope tunes and even a message board that lets enthusiasts keep in touch.
• www.deltaqueen.com. Arguably some of the best, and certainly some of the best known, this is the home page for the Delta, Mississippi and American Queens. With their popularity and continuing connection to the Queen City, it's worth a mention by me and a visit by anyone with even a passing interest in this elegant mode of travel. Just exploring the pages here makes me want to book a cruise.
• www2.cemr.wvu.edu/~venable/asa/carl1.htm. An extremely well documented personal piece about paddlewheel riverboats and their historic significance was written in 1997 by Carl R. Wright. His essay is included on this footnoted page.
Jan Perry is a Kentucky-based freelance writer who loves cruising on paddleboats almost as much as she enjoys cruising the Web and hearing from readers. Write to her at SiteSeer2K@aol.com.
