''George M. Verity'' is a historic
towboat now displayed as a museum ship in
Keokuk, Iowa
Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States, along with Fort Madison. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is ...
. Built in 1927 as ''SS Thorpe'', she is nationally significant for being one of only three surviving steam-powered towboats in existence in the United States. She was declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1989.
Description and history
''George M. Verity'' is a steel-hulled steam-powered stern-wheeler towboat, measuring in length, with the wheel included. Originally built with a beam of , she was eventually widened to . She has a
scow-form bow and a keelless flat bottom. Its internal structure involves a then-experimental truss system to support the weight of heavy components, including the boilers and engines.
''Verity'' was built in 1927 at
Dubuque, Iowa for the Inland Waterways Corporation, an arm of the
United States Government, as SS ''Thorpe'', as one of four towboats that inaugurated barge service on the upper
Mississippi River. She was the first to move barges from St. Louis north to St. Paul. She remained in service there until 1940, when she was sold to
Armco
AK Steel Holdings Corporation was a steelmaking company headquartered in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio. The company, whose name was derived from the initials of Armco, its predecessor company, and Kawasaki Steel Corporation, was a ...
Steel Corp. and put in service on the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
. Armco renamed her after their founder,
George M. Verity.
In 1960, ''George M. Verity'' was retired after 33 years of service on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and in 1961, the boat was given to the City of Keokuk for use as a river museum. The museum opened in 1962, with the boat installed in a permanent drydock facility.
Now berthed in Victory Park, she houses the George M. Verity River Museum of Upper Mississippi River history, and is open daily 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, April to November.
See also
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Iowa
*
References
External links
George M. Verity River Museum
{{Lee County NRHP
National Historic Landmarks in Iowa
Towboats
Museums in Lee County, Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Lee County, Iowa
Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
Museum ships in Iowa
1927 ships
Buildings and structures in Keokuk, Iowa