''Sprague'', built at Dubuque, Iowa's ''

Iowa Iron Works Iowa Iron Works, renamed Dubuque Boat and Boiler Works in 1904, was a manufacturing company established in Dubuque, Iowa in 1883. Notable Boats ''Sprague'' built in 1901, was the world's largest steam powered sternwheeler towboat. In 1907, ''S ...

'' in 1901 by Captain Peter Sprague for the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, was the world's largest

steam powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

sternwheeler

towboat A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...

. She was nicknamed ''Big Mama'', and was capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. In 1907, ''Sprague'' set a world's all-time record for towing: 60 barges of coal, weighing 67,307 tons, covering an area of acres, and measuring by . She was decommissioned as a towboat in 1948.

Legacy

Vicksburg Riverfront Sprague mural Dafford Murals

After decommissioning, the ''Sprague'' became a museum on the Vicksburg, Mississippi, waterfront, and restoration was initiated in 1972 using funds appropriated by the

Mississippi Legislature The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper Mississippi State Senate, with 52 me ...

. For many years the long-running melodrama ''Gold in the Hills'' was performed on the towboat. Restoration had begun, but on April 15, 1974, the upper decks of the towboat burned while moored at Vicksburg. In 1975, the ''Sprague'' was moved to dry dock north of Vicksburg while negotiations for restoration funding proceeded. On April 15, 1977, the ''Sprague'' was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

(NRHP). With restoration funding approved, the ''Sprague'' was moved from dry dock in March 1979 to a mooring site on the

Yazoo River The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi. It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the ...

Diversion Canal north of Vicksburg. However, before restoration contracts were awarded, the ''Sprague'' sank at the mooring site, and restoration efforts were abandoned. The smokestacks and paddlewheel were removed, and in 1981, the Army Corps of Engineers demolished what was left of the ''Sprague'' using dynamite before clearing the metal debris from the canal. The Sprague was delisted from the NRHP on May 15, 1987. As of 2019, pieces of the ''Sprague'' were still evident in

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat, and the population at the 2010 census was 23,856. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vic ...

. A model of ''Sprague'' is in the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. The model was made in 1908 by ''Elizabeth Marine Ways,'' a steamboat yard in

Elizabeth, Pennsylvania Elizabeth is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on the east bank of the Monongahela River, where Pennsylvania Route 51 crosses, upstream (south) of Pittsburgh and close to the county line. The population was 1,493 at the 2010 census. ...

, and was put on show at the

Pittsburgh Exposition Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

of 1908. Another model of ''Sprague'' can be found in the Portland Museum in the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

neighborhood of Louisville, KY. The Friends of the Sprague organization sponsored a mural entitled ''The Big Mama of the Mississippi'' as one of the Vicksburg Riverfront Murals. It was dedicated on March 23, 2007.

References

{{reflist Riverboats Towboats Steamboats of the United States 1904 ships Ships built in Iowa Former National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi