This web site is dedicated to the display of pictures of and information about towboats on the rivers of the United States. For pictures of and information about riverboats other than towboats or tugboats, check out Dick's Riverboat Gallery. One of the many joys of living and boating on the Mississippi River is the opportunity to observe the passage of large towboats plying their way up and downstream, engaging in commerce, carrying huge loads of grain, coal, petroleum products and other goods. Over the years I accumulated a collection of pictures of towboats as they passed by our home. The original purpose of this web site was to display those pictures, mostly taken by me in various locations around St. Paul, MN, primarily near mile 819.4 on the Upper Mississippi River (UMR), about twenty miles downstream of St. Paul. However, a funny thing happened along the way. Thanks to the efforts of many fine folks who have contributed pictures, information and assistance (see CREDITS below), this web site can no longer be considered as primarily devoted to one area. It now contains pictures taken in locations up and down the Mississippi, Ohio, and other rivers. Some of the earlier photographs were taken long ago, while the latest ones were taken in the last few weeks or days. At any given time, some of them may have been taken just yesterday.
If you have good photographs you have taken of towboats on the Mississippi, or the Ohio, or any of the Western Rivers, and you would like them displayed here, send them to me via an e-mail attachment, and I will post them along with the proper credits. I may adjust color balance, brightness, contrast, etc., and/or crop them as I feel necessary, although I'll try to disturb your work as little as possible. Photos are typically displayed here at 640 x 480 resolution, but I prefer starting with higher resolution photos so that there is more leeway for cropping. My e-mail is on broadband, so any resolution that's not too painful for you to upload is OK.
Disclaimer:
Dick's Towboat Gallery is a private, non profit entity. It is not affiliated with any company or companies in the towboating or any other industry or business. Vessel or company names and/or logos that appear in photographs are incidental, and do not imply any association.
CREDITS
Where known, the size and power of the towboat, documentation number, and name change history are shown along with the photograph(s). Boat pages added or updated starting in mid-December of 2010 also contain ownership history. Most of this and other information shown was derived from the 2012 and earlier editions of the "INLAND RIVER RECORD", edited by Dan Owen. Copies are available through "The Waterways Journal".
Others who have contributed pictures and/or information to the Towboat Gallery:
Rex Agnew Andrew Albertson Bill Alden Kenny Allain
Scott Alvey John Ambrose Joe Angert Jim Armstrong
Myron Balchin, Sr. John Banicki John Barnhill Capt. Les Barrois
Dave Bauerbach Mickie Bello Charles Bernhardt Rusty Besanson
Mike Bevins Roger Blanchard Mike Blitgen Carel Boon
Tracy Bowie Kevin Box Chris Brewer David Bridges
Chris Brown 'Towboat Joe' Brown Ted F. Brunt Josh Burgess
Steve Campion Mark L. Carl Capt. Jerry Carlton Rex Carlyle
Danny Casey Heather Cecil Gale Chapman III William P. Cheshire
Joe Cieslak Steve Colby Lee Creech Kasey Cummings
Glen Daigrepont Dan Dalrymple John E. Dawson David Dewey
Greg Dickerson Shawn Dickerson Phil Dufrene Todd Dunbar
Chris Dunn Barbara Agnew Ellis Frank Ellis John Ellis
John L. Evans Ray Falk Capt. Bob Felch R. J. Floyd
William Gaudet Tom Geier Justin Gerard Chick Gerber
Bill Fryer Capt. Tom Gerry Kim Gleason Andy Grant
Chris Graves Michael Gremillion Barry Griffith Don Grot
Bill Haines Harley Hall Scott Hardin Mark Haury
Joe Hawkins Thomas Hegland Rick Helmerdinger Michael Herschler
Robby Hess David Hibbs Dave Hicks John Holbrook
Mark Hovis Jon Hudson Steve Huffman Judi Hughes
David Jackson Kris Jacobi Woody Jasperson Eric M. Johnson
Stan Johnson Tom Johnson Tony Johnston Zane Johnston
Erek Kahl V. J. Kennedy Jessica Kirby Rolf Klein
Ladonna_Knoth Sue Kossow Mark Kuntz Richard L. Kurtz
David L. Matt Lagarde Blaine Landry George Lange
Tim Laughlin Todd Lehman J. R. Liemberg Justin Lunceford
Brent Maletic Jeff Manning Marv Market Ed Mars
Shawn Martinez Arloe Mayne Karen Meder Darrin Melvin
Jim Mihalek Chad Miller Joe Miller John R. Miller
Capt. Tim Miller Walter Morris Karl Morley Matt Morrow
Benjamin Mudd Fran Mullen Henry Mullen Chuck Myers
C. R. Neale III Will Nelson Mark Nichols Adolfo Nunez
Bill Otten Dan Owen Tom Parks John Payne Hayden Pearson
Sonny Pierce Bill Pilger Tommy Plaisance Nick Ploysa
Tim & Lori Powell Michael Quinton Rudi Rabe George Reichhardt
Ron Richardson Don Rodriguez Joshua Romero Dan Ross
Jim & Adam Ross Jeremy Runde Eric Schade Linley Schmidt
Joe Schneid Brian Sedlvy Chris Shelby Howard Simpson
Laurie Skrivan Capt. Billy Smith Dale Smith David Smith
J. Cecil Smith Patrick Smith Danny Stafford Greg Staton
Ron Stricklen George Stringham Shane Strouse Capt. Laurence Suire
Nels Swanson Jeremy_Tardy Dustin Taylor Roger Theide
David Thompson Bill Toninato Ed Tremewan Chris Verdun
Howard C. Vidrine Tom Waller Paul Welsh David Wetzel
Edward Wilhite Timothy Wilkerson Trey Wilkinson Rob Williams
Scott Wood Chad Wray Jeff L. Yates Patrick Yough
'Old River Bill' Zumwalt
Many thanks for your contributions. They are greatly appreciated.
UNIDENTIFIED TOWBOATS
A few of the towboats in this collection are unidentified, either because the name was not visible due to the angle of the photograph, or it was unreadable. These are displayed under the heading Unidentified Towboats. If you recognize one of these unidentified vessels, please send me an e-mail, using the link near the bottom of the page. I would love to have all the boats in the gallery identified.
SITE NAVIGATION
Click on the main image above or on any towboat name in the menus on the left, and you will be taken to a page containing the photo(s) of that towboat. Click on any image in the thumbnails list below the menus on any page, and a larger version of that image will replace the main image on the then-current page. Clicking on one of the arrows next to the thumbnails list on any page will rotate the list up or down. Clicking on the or links above or below the main image on any page will cause a larger version of the next or previous image in the thumbnails list to replace the current image. Clicking on the link below the main image will cause all the photos for that boat to be shown one after the other, continuing until some other link is selected. A few pages have access to full resolution versions of some images. In these cases, clicking on the main image or the explanatory legend below it will display the full resolution image, which may be quite large. Enjoy!
SLIDE SHOW FEATURE
There's a new Slide Show feature that works for all Towboat Gallery pages other than the home page. If a page has more than one photo, a link will be located between the and links, just below the main photo. Clicking on the link will start a slide show of all the photos of that boat. The slide show will continue until you make another menu selection, click on a thumbnail image, or click on one of the or links. Enjoy!
CHOOSE A MENU FEATURE
I finally figured out how to do something I've wanted to do for a long time, offer different menus for people who want to look for towboats in a different order. Starting August 1, 2011, when you first enter the Towboat Gallery, you will see a "Select Desired Menu" menu with a choice of several menus; the first being the usual one, showing the boats in alphabetic order by name; a second menu with the boats in order by length, longest first; a third menu with the boats in order by power, highest first; a fourth menu with the boats in alphabetic order by builder; a fifth menu with boats listed by number of screws, quadruple to single; a sixth menu with the boats listed by age, oldest first; and a seventh menu listing the credited photographers in alphabetical order, followed by a list of the boats where their photographs appear. Once you make your selection, the menu that you chose is the one that will continue to be shown, unless you decide to switch menus. Each menu will contain an entry labeled "Select a Different Menu"; clicking on that entry will return you to the "Select Desired Menu" menu. Let me know if you find this feature useful and workable. I have some more ideas for developments in menu selections, but I'll keep those to myself until I figure out how to do them.
BOAT & RIVER LINKS
Here are links to other interesting Towboat and/or River related sites. If you like my Towboat Gallery, I'm sure you will like these sites as well. Enjoy!
IT'S FREE! .... Join & share info, photos and drawings, discussions with others
that design, model, build and operate such vessels. If you're interested in
modeling, work or worked on boats, or just like watching, this is for you!
Except where otherwise credited,
all photographs on this site are
Copyright Richard E. Dunbar 1991-2011
Any and all other rights reserved.
All contributed photographs are
Copyright Credited Contributor 1991-2011
Any and all other rights reserved.
Photographs from this site are not to be downloaded for publication of any kind without first obtaining permission from Dick's Towboat Gallery and the Credited Contributor.
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