Save the Sprague: 2012

Each year I make a prilgrimage to the resting place of one of Vicksburg's most historical assets which is rusting along Washington Street right past downtown Vicksburg. It is the remains of the Sprague steamboat, a majestic lady who is an icon of our city's history. But for another year, the pieces salvaged from when she burned several decades ago have succumbed to another year of rust. And once again I am making an appeal to anyone who will listen that we need to save the Sprague. More specifically, I think we need to save the sternwheel, which is the first photo in this album and the smokestacks. I can just picture the sternwheel rebuilt and placed in a shallow pool near the Transportation Museum. A motor could turn the wheel and people could just stand there and watch that mighty piece of Vicksburg and Mississippi history. So please share this album with anyone whom you think can save the Sprague. Thieves, I understand, have already started stealing some of the Sprague to sell as scrap. I cannot stand, however, to see her just rust away. Who will help me?

Save the Sprague

As has become a tradition on my blog at the start of a new year,  I once again appeal for the people of Vicksburg to rise up and do what they can to save the Sprague. The remains of the famous sternwheeler lie in tangled vines on Washington Street near downtown. Most people passing by the historical remnants of Vicksburg's past have no clue how important a role the boat, a world record holder in steamboat lore, has in the heritage of our town. But for another year, it has been subjected to the elements and rust has had another year to gnaw at the once proud lady of the river.

I know all of the rusted pieces cannot be saved, but just close your eyes when you finish reading this and picture in your mind the sternwheeer section, pictured in the top photos, if was outfitted with new paddles and placed in a pool of water and allowed to show its majesty for all to see. Place a motor alongside the sternwheel and just think of how people would marvel at the size of the sternwheel as it churned the water. It would be an awesome sight!

Spread the word, my friends. I know not many people come to this blog, but leave a comment if you stumble across this post. Let others know of the plight of the Sprague. Let's save her before Mother Nature takes her or she is cut up and taken for scrap. We cannot let that happen. This piece of Vicksburg heritage can be saved; it can be a showpiece for the city; and it can serve the people of Vicksburg for years to come.

Save the Sprague

Some of the remains of the Sprague looks like heaps of rusting iron pieces. I am not asking that we save every piece of the grand old boat. But at least the sternwheel, which was pictured on Monday and Tuesday, plus the two smokestacks, which I pictured yesterday, can be cleaned up and moved for display. They are easily identifiable pieces which can be seen in every photo of the steamboat.
You can barely see some of the iron pieces for vines and brush have overtaken them, looking like they are trying to pull them back into the earth.

Here's the crow's nest of the boat. If that thing could only talk! Think how it would look if it was sandblasted, repainted and mounted near the transportation museum or the MV Mississippi exhibit, with that big red sternwheel next to her and the two smokestacks erect. I can see it in my head....and it's great!

Save the Sprague. I am lifting my voice. Will you?

Pieces of Vicksburg's history....rusting away

Here are the smokestacks of the sternwheeler Sprague, one of the most awe-inspiring vessels to ever ply the waters of the Mighty Mississippi. Ride down Washington Street now and you can see the pieces that have been hidden by vines and brush for the past few months. The other photos at the bottom of this post are other pieces of the historic boat. Another year has passed and the boat seems to be forgotten by everyone. I never even saw the boat intact and can only imagine how big a boat she was just by looking at photos of her. But I do understand how important these old rusty pieces are to the city's history, especially considering that the likelihood of another steamboat ever visiting the city are pretty nil. We need to save what we can of her before it is too late, even if it is just the sternwheel, smokestacks and crow's nest. I spend hours upon hours scouring the countryside recording scenes that one day will only exist in pictures. I do not want that to happen to the Sprague. For I can only surmise that at some point in time someone is going to want to use that piece of land where she now rests and will let the junkman have her. She will be cut up into scrap and hauled off. I will cry on that day when it arrives.


I am one voice. Will you add your voice to mine? Spread this blog entry far and wide. At some point in time someone who can do what needs to be done will hear us.

Save the Sprague

Here is the sternwheel of The Sprague in the tangled vines between the Yazoo Diversion Canal and Washington Street. That's a smokestack in the foreground of the photo. More photos will run for the rest of the week to bring about awareness of this majestic piece of Vicksburg history that is rusting away on the outskirts of town. The more people find out about this, the better the chances something can be done to preserve what remains. I am one voice.

State of the Sprague

One of the biggest travesties in Vicksburg, as I have stated before, is that the remains of the Sprague, once the largest paddlewheeler that plied the Mississippi River, is rusting away in weeds alongside Washington Street. These photos were taken early Saturday morning. The paddlewheel, pictured here, is just majestic when you walk underneath her. Some of the original wood, complete with red paint, is still bolted to the wheel.

I can only imagine what it would be like if the city, state, nation or a private group would pull this majestic paddlewheel out of the weeds and restore her to her former glory and place her near the downtown area where they are putting the MV Mississippi exhibit and the transportation museum. Just think of a motor being attached to the paddlewheel in a shallow pool of water and folks once again seeing how bigger than life "Big Mama" was. What a showstopper!

The Sprague...or what's left of it

One of the greatest preservation tragedies to ever befall Vicksburg is occurring as we speak on Washington Street. No, it's not a building. Instead, it's a Vicksburg icon, more closely linked with the city than anything I can think of. It's the remains of the Sprague. A few pieces of the grand old boat are used in the art park downtown, but the remainder of what's left of the sternwheeler is rusting away alongside Washington Street just north of downtown. I am so saddened by that. I stop every once in a while and photograph the remnants. Included in these photos are the sternwheel itself, the smokestacks and numerous gears and mechanical devices I can only guess at what they do. But each piece is precious to me. It's a part of this city's history and summer after summer I watch it get consumed by weeds and beaten by the elements, only to re-emerge in the fall a little rustier, a bit more fragile. 

However, with the demise of the American Queen, Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen, it would be prudent of us to try to recapture as much of the steamboat heritage we can claim as our own. The solution? I don't know. But I take as many people as I can to the site so they can see the smokestacks and the pieces of what was once the greatest steamboat in the world. I never saw her intact, but the photos — and the mural — harken me back to those times and I can see the ol' girl now making her way to City Front loaded with cotton and people, smoking bellowing out of her twin smokestacks. The city has forgotten her, but I haven't. Now you can remember her, too.