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EXPLORING
KENTUCKY - July 2002 by Katherine Tandy Brown Belle o' the Falls
All at once, I was startled back to reality, as the Belle’s steam calliope began to blast a jaunty rendition of “Here Comes the Showboat.” “What’s that?” 11-year-old Christopher Bowe of Berea asked me, his eyes wide. When I failed to explain well enough what a calliope was, we climbed the steps to the upper deck, where talented teenager Josh Caplinger, the Belle’s official calliope player since 1997, tickled the keyboard of a 32-note pipe organ. During the next few minutes, he briefly relinquished the keys to Travis Vasconcelos, Caplinger’s 14-year predecessor as the boat’s calliopist, who now entertains on an Indiana boat, the Majestic. According to the Belle’s Captain Kevin Mullen, calliopes were created to call people to church, but soon were embraced by circuses and steamboats as a kind of marketing tool to let folks know they were in town, with notes that can be heard for several miles. Christopher, a budding sailor, was drawn to the Belle’s magnificent, bright red paddlewheel, and stood captivated as sheets and beads of river water caught the sun’s sparkle and danced from paddle to paddle. Intermittent clouds of steam bathed our faces in moist warm air as the Belle came to life at the start of a two-hour sightseeing cruise. Birthed as the Idlewild in 1914 for about $80,000, the Belle has definitely earned her 1989 designation as a National Historic Landmark. Built near Pittsburgh by James Reese and Sons, whose name still shines from her still-working original engine, the great steamer began life as a ferry, transporting passengers and hauling such goods as cotton and mules between Memphis and Arkansas. Soon the distinctive lights bordering her decks were added, making her look like a wedding cake at night, illuminated by 339 “11 watters.” Until the late ’40s, the busy Idlewild served time as a working day packet, a “tramp” that steamed from town to town offering public excursions and a gambling site. During World War II she pushed oil barges and served as a floating USO nightclub for military bases along the Mississippi. In 1948 she became the Avalon, traveling the navigable length of the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, St. Croix, Cumberland and Kanawha rivers through 19 states and 130 towns. Through those years, the venerable vessel was sold five times, surviving one near-disastrous dock collision. On the aging boat’s last trip to the auction block in 1962, Jefferson County Judge/Executive Marlowe Cook saved her from the scrap heap with a bid of $34,000, purchasing her for the county to run as an excursion boat. After Ashland Oil towed her from Cincinnati to Louisville gratis, Cook renamed her Belle, his wife’s college nickname. And the steamer became its own nonprofit, joint city-county agency, with a goal of staying “as affordable as possible for citizens while breaking even.” Jefferson County owns her still.
During her 88 years, the Belle has logged more river miles than any other steamboat in U. S. history, and she’s officially recognized as the oldest river steamer still in operation. An 11-year restoration begun in the mid-1980s has helped revive her girlish charm, though she still sports her original eight-foot pilot’s wheel, roof bell, mast, capstan, much of her original framework and her whistle, which the captain operates with a foot pedal on the pilothouse floor. To help ease the work load of this popular paddlewheeler, in 1995 Jefferson County bought the Huck Finn, a 1963 diesel-driven, replica sternwheeler, renaming her the Spirit of Jefferson. Though she can carry only 300 passengers to the Belle’s 800 capacity, the Spirit’s two enclosed decks are climate controlled, a factor to consider, especially when booking a charter. “The Spirit combines the nostalgic charm of river days with modern amenities,” says Holli Cooke, director of sales and marketing for Hornblower Marine Services (HMS), which has been managing both vessels since April. “She looks historic from the outside but when you step aboard, it’s like a hotel banquet room.” Both sternwheelers run two-hour sightseeing cruises with narrated river history. The Belle begins her annual season during the Derby Festival at Thunder Over Louisville, when you can purchase an all-day ticket to watch the magnificent air and fireworks shows dockside. Her season begins with a Memorial Day Kickoff Cruise and runs weekends through October. The Spirit adds sunset cruises with music, refreshments and drinks available twice a week through August. Both also offer private charter dinner cruises, plus corporate events, meetings, weddings (the captain can do the marryin’ honors), rehearsal dinners, birthday parties et al. Annual special event cruises include the Stars & Stripes on July 4th, when you can watch fireworks dockside and then cruise, Oktoberfest, with German food and dancing to an oompah band, and the Monster Mash Bash, an adult costume party with live entertainment. Boogie on the Belle is a once monthly Saturday night dance cruise with a live oldies band. Another traditional pre-Derby do is The Great Steamboat Race, a challenge between the Cincinnati-based paddlewheeler Delta Queen and Louisville’s Belle, billed as a race between “air-conditioned comfort” (the former) and “a Mississippi River-style tramp” (the latter). “On the Belle we take people back in time,” explains Captain Mullen, who came to the Belle in 1986 and serves as captain and pilot on both vessels. “You can feel the paddlewheel vibrating through the boat. You get that rhythm.” According to river historian C. W. Stoll, the secret of this “Legendary Lady’s” longevity is threefold – sturdy construction, not-too-big yet not-too-small dimensions, and a heaping helping of luck to survive calamities and to be blessed with folks who have appreciated and cared for her. Through the years, the lovely Belle has earned herself a place in the hearts of untold numbers of passengers and crew. “You combine the paddlewheel, the steam, the calliope, the boat being as old as she is and the fact that they’ll never build another one like her, that they’ll never replace her,” says her captain, “tie that together and it makes her pretty special.” Christopher and I concur. Find out more at (866) 832-0011 www.belleoflouisville.org.
If the weather’s iffy, be sure to call before you go. Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2002, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2002, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
The
Memorial Day sun shone hot at Louisville’s Fourth Street Wharf
while a soft breeze blew ripples along the upper end of the Falls of
the Ohio River. Time slipped away as I stepped from a red-carpeted gangway
onto the Belle of Louisville’s spit-and-polished deck. I could
just imagine being surrounded by hefty bales of cotton bound for New
Orleans, muscled deckhands hauling thick lines to cast off, and the
joyous strains of a calliope beckoning passengers to come aboard.
The
community of Louisville then rallied to restore her with volunteer time,
money and supplies, and the following spring she once again graced the
Ohio as a floating reminder of olden times, while hosting sightseers,
teen hops and conventions.