Olebird
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2019
- Messages
- 413
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- StarLite
- Vessel Make
- Mainship 30 Pilot II - 2003
Been planning my trip up the TTW (Tenn-Tom) to bring MV Starlite home to Guntersville Lake for the summer/fall season. Several of the travel guides and web sites talk about how desolate and boring the 400 mile stretch from Pickwick to Mobile can be.
It's true the 200 mi of mostly cut & dredge above Demopolis can get pretty boring if you don't like Pine Trees. But, if you are a river history buff - once below Columbus MS things can get very interesting, especially on a cool fall evening - hanging on the hook - in a misty creek just off the main channel. Listen carefully and you might hear paddle wheels splashing, frantic cries of Fire/Fire from master and slave alike on the Phantom Steamboat - Eliza Battle that is reported to run the narrow river between the white limestone cliffs.
Keep your radar on and a lookout on the sonar - her bones are still there in 28ft - along with the 29 souls who chose to freeze to death (in lower Alabama) rather than go down with 1400 bales of burning cotton.
A good read - The Tombigbee River Steamboats: Rollodores, Dead Heads and Side-Wheelers [Rufus Ward] on Amazon.com.
It's true the 200 mi of mostly cut & dredge above Demopolis can get pretty boring if you don't like Pine Trees. But, if you are a river history buff - once below Columbus MS things can get very interesting, especially on a cool fall evening - hanging on the hook - in a misty creek just off the main channel. Listen carefully and you might hear paddle wheels splashing, frantic cries of Fire/Fire from master and slave alike on the Phantom Steamboat - Eliza Battle that is reported to run the narrow river between the white limestone cliffs.
Keep your radar on and a lookout on the sonar - her bones are still there in 28ft - along with the 29 souls who chose to freeze to death (in lower Alabama) rather than go down with 1400 bales of burning cotton.
A good read - The Tombigbee River Steamboats: Rollodores, Dead Heads and Side-Wheelers [Rufus Ward] on Amazon.com.
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