The JBS has remained partially rebuilt for several years and needs reassembly. The late Captain Dennis Trone, a legendary riverman, designed and built the steam-powered JULIE BELLE at his Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works, the former Iowa Iron Works where such historic steamboats as the CLYDE, the first iron-hulled boat on the Western Rivers, and the SPRAGUE, the largest steam towboat ever built, came to fruition on the same marine ways. The SPIRIT, heading for LaCrosse, Wisconsin, on the Upper Mississippi River, will join another river passenger boat the JULIA BELLE SWAIN, often called the JULIE BELLE, or the JBS. Hyatt renamed the stern paddlewheeler the GRAND VICTORIA II and moved the floating casino to Rising Sun, Indiana, on the Middle Ohio River, where I was in command as “Senior Captain” for some 16 years. (Photo by Robert Learmont/Midwest Towboat Review))Ĭaptain Manthe was also in charge of my last professional riverboat, the HILTON FLAMINGO, a New Orleans casino vessel before Hilton sold it to Hyatt Gaming of Chicago.

The voyage of the sternwheeler, SPIRIT OF PEORIA, Captain Troy Manthe’s new toy, is the most-watched excitement on the river this week.

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