Swooning over the Swain: Hundreds attend launch of city's newest riverboat

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, May 28, 1995 | by Moore, Pat

If Mark Twain had been aboard the Julie Belle Swain on Saturday, he probably would have said: "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

But even a damp and dreary day could not spoil the enthusiasm of the first voyage of the steamboat now calling Riverside Park in La Crosse home.

Homage to the literary great was paid by Bill Collins of Madison, who dressed as Twain and was one of 100 or so invited guests. Outfitted in a white suit with a black neck ribbon, Collins gave the boat an authentic, old river flair.

In his one pocket was a bunch of cigars. In the other, Collins had pieces of paper with some of Twain's best-known sayings, with the weather quip surely among them.

The boat left dock at 10:30 a.m. and headed south, returning to Riverside Park at noon.

Another passenger was Bob Taunt, who is the La Crosse County personnel director during the week, but who assumes the identity of Capt. George Merrick, riverboat pilot, on weekends.

"Tell me any towns along the Mississippi River lucky enough to have two paddlewheelers," he said, glancing at the freshly painted gingerbread elegance of the Julia Belle Swain and the smaller La Crosse Queen docked at the north end of the same park.

Music for the cruise was provided by Helen Hoskins on the calliope, which hasn't been heard on the river since the last time the Delta Queen stopped by. Hoskins played "Here Comes the Bride" for a couple getting married in Riverside Park before swinging into "Cruising Down the River" and "Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee."

The youngest passenger slept most of the trip. She was 2-1/2-month-old Eleanor George Inman, daughter of Cecilia and Bo Inman of Cochrane.

One passenger, Nadja Sidorkina, of Dubna, Russia, and a houseguest of the Taunts, smiled when asked how she enjoyed the trip.

"Very good. Very good," she said.

The curious were welcomed into the pilothouse. Up the steep stairway is a bench. Just inside the door is perhaps the best seat in the house There visitors can watch Capt. Randy Morrison turn the huge wheel and watch the river, scenery and other boats go by.

As the Julia Belle Swain made its entrance back to Riverside Park, a crowd of about 250 people lined the cement shoreline and applauded the musical antics of the riverboat band, which included Ed Sullivan, Dick Chaffee, Dick Hansen and Ron Sacia.