Delta Queen Leaving Vicksburg '89

The Delta Queen departs from Vicksburg, Ms. in the summer of 1989.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Mississippi
• River
• Delta
• Queen
• Steamboat
• Vicksburg
• Calliope
• Dixie

[ARoyalLyon]

Sorry to hear this boat was retired. I wish I could give the beautiful sounding calliope a new home, but my neighbors don't wish that. Such a happy cheerful tone to the pipes, the best of the riverboats.

What is the name of the song played after Dixie?

[organgrinderted]

Great calliope concert.

[gootenslog]

Cool!

[doughesson]

I've often wonders how far ahead the calliope player plans the songs.Could it be"Okay this one,this one and then I'll do this one." or if they're good enough,do they just play whatever pops into their heads?

[doughesson]

@BenAliGtor Lotta people don't know that. Paducah KY's library has a book called "Long Live the Queen" that tells how the Greenes bought the boat and had to pay for a full crew even though she was towed from California through the Panama Canal and up to New Orleans to be put into service as a Mississippi River boat.

[zivadoto88]

they put as a display here in vburg

[Sonoraman]

You're welcome! I collect pre-1925 vintage recordings and tend to know a lot of these songs. ;D Funny Story about paddle wheelers: I'm fairly sure it was the Delta Queen. I was doing a civil war reenactment at Fort Defiance, Il back about 1992. I saw the riverboard coming down the Mississippi. I rode my horse along the shore waving the Missouri Confederate Battle Flag. The guy playing the caliope must have seen me because he switched in mid-song to "Dixie".

[ARoyalLyon]

Thanks, Sonoraman.

Now I know, the songs are Dixie, St. Louis Blues, and Old Man River.

I sure wish I could hear them in person.

[Sonoraman]

The song after Dixie is "St. Louis Blues" by W C Hand. ;D

[hammondplayer1]

Thank you for sharing this. Growing up and still living on the banks of the Ohio river this sight has been a piece of history I remember since childhood, just hearing the calliope from miles away meant a trip to the riverbank for a view of this beautiful vessel. Thanks again!

[didyoushityourpants]

is this boat still in service? i know i see one of these steamboats in the summertime going through the locks here maybee its the mississippi queeen that i hear all of the time