Tribute to the River, Part 7

I had hoped to dig a little more into the history of the sternwheel towboat Juanita before I wrote this, but as usual, life had other plans for me this week. I didn't want this to hang out there forever, so let's go with what I have.

I've liked seeing the Juanita since it worked the AEP harbor at Lakin, W.Va.

(Photo taken in 2010, I think)

In the 1980s I went up there as I worked on a story for The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, W.Va., about the three remaining working sternwheelers on this part of the Ohio at that time -- the Lady Lois of Catlettsburg, Ky., the Donald B of the Maysville, Ky., area and the Juanita. While at Lakin I met a man named Worthy Love, who worked on the Juanita and was more or less attached to it.

The Juanita has sinced passed into the ownership of Tom Cook of Dunbar, W.Va., on the Kanawha. When I worked in beautiful downtown Charleston, W.Va., for a while, sometimes I would take U.S. 60 and from to work instead of Interstate 64. I would see the Juanita tied up at Dunbar when I wasn't focused on traffic.

In March 2014, when I separated from one employer in Charleston (my decision), I stopped at a park in St. Albans to think about what was ahead for me. Seeing the Juanita go by made me feel bretter.

At the Tribute ot the River a few days ago, I walked past the Juanita when I asked its owner, Tom Cook, something. He invited me on board and gave me a short tour of the boat and a bit of its history. It seems the Juanita didn't have any construction plans. It was all figured out as they went along.

(A nameplate Tom Cook had made for the Juanita. It's mounted on the boat's exterior instead of inside the boat so more people can see it.)

(Tom Cook shows the sign on the lower deck of the Juanita. It's similar to the one the boat bore when it was owned by O.F. Shearer & Sons, although that sign was a bit larger and was painted on the side of the boat instead of mounted there, Cook said.)

(Engine room of the Juanita)

It was an interesting tour of both history and the present, and I'm glad Mr. Cook invited me aboard.

And that's about it regarding sternwheelers for now. Maybe I'll use the sternwheeler festival in Pomeroy, Ohio, at the end of this month as an excuse to get a few more pictures and to go back into Meigs County. From Racine up, trhere's some beautiful country along the river this time of year.