Sterling Rock Falls Historical Society Meeting

The Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society's meeting will be hosting there March Meeting.  Their program will be presented by Robert Swenson, a retired professor in architecture at SIU Carbondale and Metropolis native, Swenson has conducted extensive research about steamboats constructed in his hometown during the nineteenth century.  He will discuss the 67 botas built at Metropolis beginning in the 1850's and the people involved - the designers, engineers, builders, carpenters and craftspeople, owners, captains, pilots, and "roustabouts." The story includes boats that played significant roles during the Civil War, boats built for the Missouri River trade during the Gold Rush, railroad ferries, logging boats, and the 327-foot "cotton boat" Mary Belle, one of the largest to ply the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the 1870s.