Golden Eagle (Packet/Excursion, 1918-1947)

BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel

BOAT TYPE: Packet/Excursion

BUILT: Jeffersonville, Indiana, Howard Ship Yards, 1904 as the Wm. Garig

FORMERLY: Wm. Garig

FINAL DISPOSITION: Ran aground on Tower Island and sank, May 17, 1947

OWNERS: Eagle Packet Company, St. Louis; 1946: Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Miller and Mr. and Mrs. E. Willers; 1947: Herman T. Pott, St. Louis Shipbuilding and Steel Company

OFFICERS & CREW: 1935: Captain W.H. (Buck) Leyhe; 1946: Ben Winters (captain)

RIVERS: Tennessee River; Mississippi River; Ohio River; Illinois River; Cumberland River

OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 2366; The Eagle Packet Company, St. Louis greatly altered and renamed the Wm. Garig in 1918 when they purchased her. She was entered in the St. Louis-Peoria trade and did well. In 1932 Golden Eagle was put in the St. Louis-Cape Girardeau-Commerce trade and after about six months was withdrawn, this spelling the end of the regular passenger and freight packet business for Eagle Packet Company. The Eagle Packet Company of St. Louis dated back to Civil War days. It early adopted a gold ball, swung between the smokestack to designate its vessels. The last survivor of its once mighty fleet was the Golden Eagle. In 1935, they renovated the Golden Eagle into a tourist boat and scheduled her to St. Paul, Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Nashville, etc. Upon completion of the locks and dams in the Upper Mississippi River, the Golden Eagle went to St. Paul as the first packet to visit that port for many years. As sort of a presage of coming events, on April 22, 1939, she ran a

PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Chef in kitchen cooking biscuits