The years 1956 thru 1960 were unique in Bradenton Florida, for the simple reason that there was a large sternwheeler riverboat named River Queen berthed where Twin Dolphins Marina is now located. It was the largest riverboat that never plied the waters of the Manatee River.

That's right!  The steamboat was a restaurant and tourist attraction the whole time she was on the Manatee River. The River Queen was permanently docked in Bradenton, and never left her moorings. Unfortunately, she was never all that successful and she was sold and moved to New Orleans after about four years here on the Manatee.

The River Queen was built in 1923 for the Eagle Packet Company by the Howard Ship Yards in Jefferson, Indiana. As paddle wheelers go, she was one of the biggest, about two-thirds the length of a football field at two hundred and one feet long. She was thirty-eight feet wide, drafted six and a half feet and christened as “The Cape Girardeau.”

The depression hit the Eagle Packet company hard and in the interest of keeping the company afloat, they sold the Cape Girardeau in 1935 to Captain Tom Greene who took the riverboat up the Ohio River as a tourist attraction renaming it the “Gordon C. Greene.”

After several serious breakdowns including her wheel axle, she was ultimately retired in 1951. During her remaining years, the old riverboat was sold many times and her name was changed often.

In 1952 she was sold to Portsmith, Ohio, and renamed the “Sarah Lee.” In 1955 she was moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, and used as a restaurant and museum under the name “The Sternwheeler”. Finally, the old girl was moved to Bradenton, Florida around 1956 -57 where it was rechristened as the “River Queen” to be used as a restaurant and tourist attraction.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work out and she was sold again only three years later in 1960. In 1960 the River Queen was transferred to New Orleans, Louisiana, as a theater and a bar, then again in 1961 sold to John Groffel of St. Louis and Arthur Krato from Hannibal, Missouri, at auction for a mear $49,000. The two men had her moved to Hannibal and used her as a restaurant and tourist attraction because of the town’s association with “Mark Twain” who hailed from Hannibal.

Finally, in June 1964 the River Queen was towed to St Louis for major renovations and eventually berthed on the north side of Eads Bridge. Then sometime after 2 am on December 2, 1967, the River Queen began taking on water. By 6 AM she was resting on the bottom with only her topmost decks still above water.

The remains of the grand ol’ “River Queen” can still be seen where she sank on the Mississippi River fifty-six years ago. At mean low water, you can still walk what’s left of her main deck just as so many did for forty-four years of her life.