Jeffersonville is a city and the county seat of Clark County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River. Locally, the city is often referred to by the abbreviated name Jeff. It lies directly across the Ohio River to the north of Louisville, Kentucky, along I-65. The population was 49,447 at the 2020 census.
The Kentucky Derby Festival is an annual festival held in Louisville, Kentucky, during the two weeks preceding the first Saturday in May, the day of the Kentucky Derby. The festival, Kentucky's largest single annual event, first ran from 1935 to 1937, and restarted in 1956.
The Julia Belle Swain is a steam-powered sternwheeler currently under restoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States.
Belle of Louisville is a steamboat owned and operated by the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and moored at its downtown wharf next to the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere during its annual operational period. The steamboat claims itself the "most widely traveled river steamboat in American history." Belle of Louisville's offices are aboard Mayor Andrew Broaddus, and also appears on the list of National Historic Landmarks.
Thunder Over Louisville, the annual kickoff event of the Kentucky Derby Festival, is an airshow and fireworks display in Louisville, Kentucky. It is generally held each April, about two weeks before the first Saturday in May. In years where Easter Sunday falls on the usually scheduled weekend, Thunder is moved a week earlier. It is the largest annual fireworks display in North America and began as part of an opening ceremonies event in 1989 with daytime fireworks. 1990 brought the first nighttime fireworks event. It officially began in its current location along the Ohio River in 1991 with fireworks, and an annual air show was added in 1992.
The Delta Queen is an American sternwheel steamboat. She is known for cruising the major rivers that constitute the tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South, although she began service in California on the Sacramento River delta for which she gets her name. She was docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee and served as a floating hotel until purchased by the newly formed Delta Queen Steamboat Company. She was towed to Houma, Louisiana, in March 2015 for refurbishing to her original condition.
The Big Four Bridge is a six-span former railroad truss bridge that crosses the Ohio River, connecting Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana. It was completed in 1895, updated in 1929, taken out of rail service in 1968, and converted to bicycle and pedestrian use in 2014. The largest single span is 547 feet (167 m), with the entire bridge spanning 2,525 feet (770 m). It took its name from the defunct Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, which was nicknamed the "Big Four Railroad".
Tall Stacks, formally known as the Tall Stacks Music, Arts, and Heritage Festival, was a festival held every three or four years in the Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, area, which celebrated the city's heritage of the riverboat. The sixth edition was held on October 4 to 8, 2006. The festival typically featured a number of vintage and replica steamboats from across the eastern United States, which docked along the Ohio River shoreline in Cincinnati and across the river in Covington and Newport, Kentucky.
American Queen is said to be the largest river steamboat ever built. The ship was built in 1995 and is a six-deck recreation of a classic Mississippi riverboat, built by McDermott Shipyard for the Delta Queen Steamboat Company. Although the American Queen's stern paddlewheel is indeed powered by a steam engine, her secondary propulsion, in case of an emergency and for maneuverability around tight areas where the paddle wheel can not navigate, comes from a set of diesel-electric propellers known as Z-drives on either side of the sternwheel. She has 222 state rooms for a capacity of 436 guests and a crew of 160. She is 418 feet (127 m) long and 89 feet (27 m) wide.
Rose Island is an abandoned amusement park near Charlestown, Indiana, situated on a peninsula created by Fourteen Mile Creek emptying into the Ohio River. It was a recreational area known as Fern Grove in the 1880s, mostly used as a church camp. It was so named due to the many ferns that grew there. The Louisville and Jeffersonville Ferry Company acquired it and developed it in order to increase the use of its ferry business. As Fern Grove it thrived on church picnics and family outings.
Jeffboat was a shipyard in Jeffersonville, Indiana founded by James Howard in 1834, a builder of steamboats. The company was owned by the Howard family until it was sold leading up to World War II. Following the war, it became known as the Jeffersonville Boat and Machine Company and later changed its name to Jeffboat, the more commonly used short form of its name. The company was the largest inland shipbuilder in the United States and the second-largest builder of barges before it closed in 2018.
Fredrick Way Jr. was the youngest steamboat captain on the Ohio River and Mississippi River. He was the author of books on the boats that ply the inland waterways. He supervised the flat-bottom, stern paddlewheeler, the Delta Queen, from San Francisco, down the Pacific coast, through the Panama Canal, across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Pittsburgh in 1946.
Natchez has been the name of several steamboats, and four naval vessels, each named after the city of Natchez, Mississippi or the Natchez people. The current one has been in operation since 1975. The previous Natchez were all operated in the nineteenth century, most by Captain Thomas P. Leathers. Each of the steamboats since Leathers' first had as its ensign a cotton bale between its stacks.
Robert E. Lee, nicknamed the "Monarch of the Mississippi," was a steamboat built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1866. The hull was designed by DeWitt Hill, and the riverboat cost more than $200,000 to build. She was named for General Robert E. Lee, General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States. The steamboat gained its greatest fame for racing and beating the then-current speed record holder, Natchez, in an 1870 steamboat race.
Mary Millicent Miller was an American steamboat master who was the first American woman to acquire a steamboat master's license.
Gordon C. Greene was a paddle steamer, launched in 1923, that operated under several names before sinking in St. Louis in 1967.
The Greene Line was a line of river steamships along the Ohio River. The name was changed in 1973 to Delta Queen Steamboat Company.
Betty Blake was an American historic preservationist and promoter. She was best known for preserving historic riverboats in Cincinnati. Her biggest preservation project was helping to save the Delta Queen.
The Belle of Cincinnati is an American sternwheel steamboat. She was built in 1991, originally named Emerald Lady and was used as a floating casino in Burlington, Iowa.
