This web site is dedicated to the display of pictures of and information about towboats on the rivers of the United States. Over the years, quite a few tugboats have been incorporated as well. For pictures of and information about riverboats other than towboats or tugboats, check out . 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. Originally, 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. Alas, I no longer live on the river, so my personal opportunities for towboat photography are much more limited. So I must depend on you and others with an interest in towboats for most of the photos displayed in my Towboat Gallery.
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. Please be patient; this is a one-man hobby operation, and sometimes it takes quite a while for me to get your photos posted.
Disclaimer:
Dick's Towboat Gallery is a private, non profit entity, a one-man hobby operation. 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, or in accompanying information, are incidental, and do not imply any association.
CREDITS
Where known, the size and power of the towboat, documentation number, ownership 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 as well as engine and machinery specifications. Most of this and other information shown has been derived from the 2018 and earlier editions of the "INLAND RIVER RECORD", edited by the late Dan Owen, who will be sorely missed. Copies are available through "The Waterways Journal".
Others who have contributed photographs and/or information to the Towboat Gallery are listed below
(Names in black are those who are known to have passed away since their contributions):
Rex Agnew Andrew Albertson Bill Alden Kenny Allain
Joseph Allemond Jim Alt Scott Alvey John Ambrose
Joe Angert Jim Armstrong Steve Authement(Master Marine)
Jimmy Bade Myron Balchin, Sr. John Banicki John Barnhill
Capt. Les Barrois Dave Bauerbach Mickie Bello Charles Bernhardt
Rusty Besanson Mike Bevins Roger Blanchard Mike Blitgen
Manfred Boehmer Carel Boon Tracy Bowie Kevin Box
Chris Brewer David Bridges Chris Brown Joshua Brown
'Towboat Joe' Brown Larry Brown Ted F. Brunt Josh Burgess
Kyle Caddell Steve Campion Mark L. Carl Capt. Jerry Carlton
Rex Carlyle Danny Casey Heather Cecil Gale Chapman III
William P. Cheshire Joe Cieslak Steve Colby Bruce Congdon
Katie Cook Capt. Matt Crafton Lee Creech Craig Creppel
Kasey Cummings Glen Daigrepont Dan Dalrymple Linda Day
John E. Dawson Albert Dewailly David Dewey Greg Dickerson
Shawn Dickerson Don Dixon Phil Dufrene Rory Dupre
Todd Dunbar Chris Dunn Capt. Sam Elliott Barbara Agnew Ellis
Frank Ellis John Ellis John L. Evans Ray Falk
Capt. Bob Felch R. J. Floyd Kent Furlong William Gaudet
Tom Geier Justin Gerard Chick Gerber Jonathon Gibbs
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
Jason Hausman Joe Hawkins Capt. Brandon Hayes 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
Chuck Krwszewski Mark Kuntz Richard L. Kurtz David L.
Matt Lagarde Blaine Landry George Lange Kyle Larson
Tim Laughlin Todd Lehman J. R. Liemberg Justin Lunceford
Brent Maletic Jeff Manning Marv Market Ed Mars
Shawn Martinez W. Matherne Arloe Mayne Sheldon McDonald
Jason McPhearson Karen Meder Darrin Melvin Jim Mihalek
Chad Miller Joe Miller John R. Miller Capt. Tim Miller
Ed Moe Walter Morris Karl Morley Matt Morrow Benjamin Mudd
Fran Mullen Henry Mullen Chuck Myers C. R. Neale III
Will Nelson Mark Nichols Adolfo Nunez Mike Oliger
Joe Orban Bill Otten Dan Owen Tom Parks John Payne
Hayden Pearson Jerry Pennington Marian Phillips Mark Phillips
Sonny Pierce Bill Pilger Jason Pitre Tommy Plaisance
Nick Ploysa Lee Powell Tim & Lori Powell James Pyle
Michael Quinton Rudi Rabe 'Joliet George' Reichhardt Ron Richardson
John Riley Don Rodriguez Joshua Romero Sean 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
Darren Steuber Ron Stricklen George Stringham Shane Strouse
Capt. Laurence Suire Nels Swanson Jeremy_Tardy Dustin Taylor
Roger Theide Andy Thomas 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 Brian Zody '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 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 above 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. Enjoy!
SLIDE SHOW FEATURE
There's a 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 above 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!
MENU FEATURES
When you first enter the Towboat Gallery, you will see a "Select Desired Menu" menu with a choice of several menus; the first shows 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/engines, 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. There's one other menu option, the Expanded Boat Names Menu, which works a little differently. If you select that option, a larger menu will appear in the middle of the page, with letter buttons to get you quickly into the menu wherever you want to be (A, B,...etc.). Another difference: when you click on a boat name in the Expanded Boat Names Menu, the page will display in a new tab. Both menus ordered by boat name now have all the names by which any of the boats in the Towboat Gallery have ever been known, whether we have photos of them with that name or not; when we don't have a photo of a boat with its current name, that name will be enclosed in parentheses. If you select a name for which we don't have a photo, you'll be taken to the page for that boat's current name. Please let me know if you find this feature useful.
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!
Except where otherwise credited,
all photographs on this site are
Copyright Richard E. Dunbar 1991-2018
Any and all other rights reserved.
All contributed photographs are
Copyright Credited Contributor 1991-2018
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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