Keokuk's George M. Verity River Museum. Emery Styron photo.
By Emery Styron
Tramp up the gangplank of the George M. Verity and you’ll stand astride an authentic hunk of American transportation history. This 89-year-old paddle-wheeler — one of only three surviving steam-powered towboats in the U.S. — opened the Upper Mississippi to river commerce, delivered millions of tons of coal on the Ohio and continues to educate hundreds of thousands of visitors as a river museum in Keokuk, Iowa.
Extending commerce to the Upper Mississippi
The Verity, originally named the S.S. Thorpe to honor the president of the Upper Mississippi Barge Line, was one of a handful of steam towboats built in the late 1920s and early 1930s under the aegis of the newly-formed Inland Waterways Corporation to extend barge traffic from St. Louis to St. Paul. Noted naval architect Thomas Rees Tarn designed the Thorpe and two sister boats. Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works built them for $175,000 each — enough to buy 600 new Model T Fords at $290 apiece, according to David Tschiggfrie, author of The George M. Verity Story. The Thorpe was 162.5 feet long, 35.1 feet wide, 5.1 feet deep and powered by a pair of Foster-Wheeler water tube boilers and two tandem-compound steam engines.
The Thorpe left St. Louis on Aug. 15, 1927, on her maiden voyage with shipment of 1,600 tons of coal. The Daily Gate City newspaper noted: “The towboat S.S. Thorpe with three barges made its first visit to Keokuk Thursday of last week … it has a small consignment of freight … the first time anything has been brought here by river for many a year…”
The Thorpe was modified over the years to handle larger tows and worked for the government-backed Federal Barge Line until 1940, when more powerful diesel boats displaced her. American Rolling Mills Company bought the Thorpe, added a Texas deck, staterooms and visitor lounge, widened the hull and renamed her for the company founder. Armco, as it was better known, installed a herringbone-style paddlewheel in 1945 to lessen vibration, bringing the Verity to its present configuration.
The Verity pushed over 10 million tons of coal for the steelmaker in the next 20 years. When the historical society in Lee County, Iowa, got wind of her retirement from a riverboat captain in 1960, plans were hatched to bring her to Keokuk.
Navigating the snags
Armco sold the Verity for $1. Keokuk promised to keep the name and make her into a river museum, but getting the Verity back to the Mississippi and permanently beached took some doing. The Souix City-New Orleans Barge Line moved her to Keokuk for a token $1 in December 1961. The Verity was tied upstream while local contractor C.R. McDowell figured out what came next.
When waters rose that spring, he dug a wide, berm-protected trench perpendicular to the river, pumped it dry and poured concrete piers. When he let the water back in, a Coast Guard cutter pushed the Verity up the trench and bulldozers held her in place as the water was pumped back out. She settled onto her footings in the city’s Victory Park and has remained there since.
Iowa Governor Norman Erbe and the namesake’s grandson were on hand for dedication of the George M. Verity River Museum on June 2, 1962. The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The Verity has entertained over half a million visitors from all 50 states and many foreign countries.
A unique museum experience
From your first moment on deck, the Verity offers a unique, up-close experience in working river life. Visitors marvel at the size of things. The bow knees that bore against barges are taller than a man. The capstan on the main deck has the girth of a mature oak. Arm-size weathered ropes wind around yard-long kevels on the deck. Black smokestacks tower from the boilers.
Long timbers of the Pitman arms connect the giant engine pistons to the thick-planked, 19-foot-diameter paddlewheel at the stern. A working miniature steam boiler and engine, built by an engineer who worked on the Verity, helps visitors understand how energy from fuel oil was converted to steam then to 1000 horsepower of mechanical force to turn the paddlewheel.
Visitors are amazed at the tangle of red, green and white pipes and mysterious gauges in the engine room. They delight to discover an antique full-body diving suit with a round brass helmet sprawled on a table, a reminder that crew members once plunged into murky waters to inspect for hull damage. Other exhibits show how Mississippi River water was “purified” for drinking and how the “donkey boiler” got its name.
On the upper decks, photos of bygone river days decorate hallways. Visitors can check out cramped crew berths, view the galley and dining room and tour the pilothouse. Few can resist perching in the captain’s chair, pushing the bridge telegraph lever to “full speed” and pretending to steer while taking in the river panorama.
The rugged Verity was built to last, but time and weather take their toll. It is Chuck Pietscher’s mission to keep the Verity in good repair. “We seem to have more and more 500-year floods,” muses the sole serving member of the Keokuk Riverboat Commission. The Verity was above the high-water line when she was beached, but floodwaters reached the main deck in 1993, 2001 and 2008. Holes in the hull insure she’ll never float away.
Admission fees, grants and $10,000 a year from the city pay for the Verity’s upkeep, but friends of the boat, like the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, pitch in too. Pietscher’s son recently restored the rotten exterior ends of the Pitmans for his Eagle Scout project.
Pietscher’s passion is to keep the visitors coming. Why? “It’s always fun to see kids on board ringing bells and wanting to climb on things,” he says with a smile.
Thanks to the dedication of volunteers and river buffs like Pietscher, it’s a good bet the Verity will be teaching lessons on transportation history, American ingenuity and life on the Mississippi for generations to come.
Visit the Verity Memorial Day through Labor Day
The George M. Verity River Museum in Keokuk’s Victory Park is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, Memorial Day through Labor Day and some spring and fall weekends. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2 for children ages 8 to 18, with children 7 and under admitted free.
The Verity is just one of the payoffs for river buffs who find their way to the waterfront below the city’s bridge to Hamilton, Illinois.
A statue of General Samuel Curtis, who commanded the Union Army to victory at the battle of Pea Ridge, stands near the boat. Across the railroad tracks, restoration efforts are underway at the picturesque depot designed by the noted Chicago architects, Burnham and Root.
The city’s older bridge is now an observation deck providing views of the Des Moines historic Lock & Dam 19 and Ameren’s Keokuk Energy Center, both completed in 1913. The dam was the first across the Mississippi and obliterated the Des Moines Rapids, for years the northern barrier to traffic on the Mississippi. Construction photos of the dam and power plant are on display at the city’s tourism center, 429 Main Street.
Victory Park is also home to the Rollin’ on the River Bluesfest, gearing up for its 28th annual edition Aug. 19-20, 2016.
For more information, visit http://www.keokukiowatourism.org/verity.htm or phone the Keokuk Area Convention and Tourism Bureau, 319-524-5599.
Tramp up the gangplank of the George M. Verity and you’ll stand astride an authentic hunk of American transportation history. This 89-year-old paddle-wheeler — one of only three surviving steam-powered towboats in the U.S. — opened the Upper Mississippi to river commerce, delivered millions of tons of coal on the Ohio and continues to educate hundreds of thousands of visitors as a river museum in Keokuk, Iowa.
Extending commerce to the Upper Mississippi
The Verity, originally named the S.S. Thorpe to honor the president of the Upper Mississippi Barge Line, was one of a handful of steam towboats built in the late 1920s and early 1930s under the aegis of the newly-formed Inland Waterways Corporation to extend barge traffic from St. Louis to St. Paul. Noted naval architect Thomas Rees Tarn designed the Thorpe and two sister boats. Dubuque Boat & Boiler Works built them for $175,000 each — enough to buy 600 new Model T Fords at $290 apiece, according to David Tschiggfrie, author of The George M. Verity Story. The Thorpe was 162.5 feet long, 35.1 feet wide, 5.1 feet deep and powered by a pair of Foster-Wheeler water tube boilers and two tandem-compound steam engines.
The Thorpe left St. Louis on Aug. 15, 1927, on her maiden voyage with shipment of 1,600 tons of coal. The Daily Gate City newspaper noted: “The towboat S.S. Thorpe with three barges made its first visit to Keokuk Thursday of last week … it has a small consignment of freight … the first time anything has been brought here by river for many a year…”
The Thorpe was modified over the years to handle larger tows and worked for the government-backed Federal Barge Line until 1940, when more powerful diesel boats displaced her. American Rolling Mills Company bought the Thorpe, added a Texas deck, staterooms and visitor lounge, widened the hull and renamed her for the company founder. Armco, as it was better known, installed a herringbone-style paddlewheel in 1945 to lessen vibration, bringing the Verity to its present configuration.
The Verity pushed over 10 million tons of coal for the steelmaker in the next 20 years. When the historical society in Lee County, Iowa, got wind of her retirement from a riverboat captain in 1960, plans were hatched to bring her to Keokuk.
Navigating the snags
Armco sold the Verity for $1. Keokuk promised to keep the name and make her into a river museum, but getting the Verity back to the Mississippi and permanently beached took some doing. The Souix City-New Orleans Barge Line moved her to Keokuk for a token $1 in December 1961. The Verity was tied upstream while local contractor C.R. McDowell figured out what came next.
When waters rose that spring, he dug a wide, berm-protected trench perpendicular to the river, pumped it dry and poured concrete piers. When he let the water back in, a Coast Guard cutter pushed the Verity up the trench and bulldozers held her in place as the water was pumped back out. She settled onto her footings in the city’s Victory Park and has remained there since.
Iowa Governor Norman Erbe and the namesake’s grandson were on hand for dedication of the George M. Verity River Museum on June 2, 1962. The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The Verity has entertained over half a million visitors from all 50 states and many foreign countries.
A unique museum experience
From your first moment on deck, the Verity offers a unique, up-close experience in working river life. Visitors marvel at the size of things. The bow knees that bore against barges are taller than a man. The capstan on the main deck has the girth of a mature oak. Arm-size weathered ropes wind around yard-long kevels on the deck. Black smokestacks tower from the boilers.
Long timbers of the Pitman arms connect the giant engine pistons to the thick-planked, 19-foot-diameter paddlewheel at the stern. A working miniature steam boiler and engine, built by an engineer who worked on the Verity, helps visitors understand how energy from fuel oil was converted to steam then to 1000 horsepower of mechanical force to turn the paddlewheel.
Visitors are amazed at the tangle of red, green and white pipes and mysterious gauges in the engine room. They delight to discover an antique full-body diving suit with a round brass helmet sprawled on a table, a reminder that crew members once plunged into murky waters to inspect for hull damage. Other exhibits show how Mississippi River water was “purified” for drinking and how the “donkey boiler” got its name.
On the upper decks, photos of bygone river days decorate hallways. Visitors can check out cramped crew berths, view the galley and dining room and tour the pilothouse. Few can resist perching in the captain’s chair, pushing the bridge telegraph lever to “full speed” and pretending to steer while taking in the river panorama.
The rugged Verity was built to last, but time and weather take their toll. It is Chuck Pietscher’s mission to keep the Verity in good repair. “We seem to have more and more 500-year floods,” muses the sole serving member of the Keokuk Riverboat Commission. The Verity was above the high-water line when she was beached, but floodwaters reached the main deck in 1993, 2001 and 2008. Holes in the hull insure she’ll never float away.
Admission fees, grants and $10,000 a year from the city pay for the Verity’s upkeep, but friends of the boat, like the Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, pitch in too. Pietscher’s son recently restored the rotten exterior ends of the Pitmans for his Eagle Scout project.
Pietscher’s passion is to keep the visitors coming. Why? “It’s always fun to see kids on board ringing bells and wanting to climb on things,” he says with a smile.
Thanks to the dedication of volunteers and river buffs like Pietscher, it’s a good bet the Verity will be teaching lessons on transportation history, American ingenuity and life on the Mississippi for generations to come.
Visit the Verity Memorial Day through Labor Day
The George M. Verity River Museum in Keokuk’s Victory Park is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, Memorial Day through Labor Day and some spring and fall weekends. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2 for children ages 8 to 18, with children 7 and under admitted free.
The Verity is just one of the payoffs for river buffs who find their way to the waterfront below the city’s bridge to Hamilton, Illinois.
A statue of General Samuel Curtis, who commanded the Union Army to victory at the battle of Pea Ridge, stands near the boat. Across the railroad tracks, restoration efforts are underway at the picturesque depot designed by the noted Chicago architects, Burnham and Root.
The city’s older bridge is now an observation deck providing views of the Des Moines historic Lock & Dam 19 and Ameren’s Keokuk Energy Center, both completed in 1913. The dam was the first across the Mississippi and obliterated the Des Moines Rapids, for years the northern barrier to traffic on the Mississippi. Construction photos of the dam and power plant are on display at the city’s tourism center, 429 Main Street.
Victory Park is also home to the Rollin’ on the River Bluesfest, gearing up for its 28th annual edition Aug. 19-20, 2016.
For more information, visit http://www.keokukiowatourism.org/verity.htm or phone the Keokuk Area Convention and Tourism Bureau, 319-524-5599.