Contrary to what newspapers have been reporting over the last couple of weeks, the Delta Queen is not dead in the water in Chattanooga. The fight to put her back in operation continues, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation is doing all they can to help us. They have just added a comment section to the Delta Queen item on their website, asking people to share their memories of trips on the boat.
To support the Delta Queen, we’d like to ask everyone to go to this website and participate. But we’d like to you to go one step farther: Please also mention the importance of keeping the Delta Queen alive and plying our waterways as she has done proudly and safely for 82 years, not tied up to a dock in Chattanooga or anyplace else. And if you live in a river town please stress the economic benefits the Queen and her passengers bring to your community.
The Preservation Nation website has an enormous and influential audience that cares deeply about protecting our country’s historic treasures. This is a golden opportunity to send them a loud, clear S.O.S.
http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/southern-region/delta-queen-steamboat.html
Thank you all for your continued devotion to the Queen’s cause. I am confident that if we stay the course just a little while longer, we will win this battle.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I live on the Mississippi River and I can tell you that the Delta Queen is an important part of our river heritage. She needs to be set free to paddle up our waters again.She was a boon to the town of Hannibal Mo, and we waited for her every year. People would flock to see her in their pleasure boats staring miles downriver from Hannibal.We would cruise alongside her and exchange greetings with the passengers who all appeared to be having the time of their lives. This ship is pure Americana.Mark Twain is probably rolling in his grave over her plight.