The largest towboat built in the U.S., the MV Mississippi, docked at St. Paul’s Lambert’s Landing over the first weekend in August on its mission to educate the public about the role the Army Corps of Engineers plays in flood control, maintaining a commercial navigation channel and — in these enlightened times — partnering with…
All Punx Float
As a towboat captain, I have seen some wild and flimsy contraptions maneuver the currents of the mighty Mississippi River, so as I made my way to Hidden Falls Regional Park in St. Paul to watch the “All Punx Float” flotilla set off on a 120-mile trip to Winona in early June, I hoped I…
Dropping out of Minneapolis
The first towboat to pass through the Upper St.Anthony Falls (SAF) Lock was the old Twin City Barge & Towing Savage, back in September 1963. On June 9, 2015, at about 2:30 p.m., the Becky Sue locked downstream with two loads of scrap metal, making it the last towboat to ever use the lock. A…
Last Tow Ride to the Upper Harbor
In early November, I was a guest of Captain Kelsey Rohr and his crew aboard the motor vessel Patrick Gannaway on their daily run from St. Paul to north Minneapolis. Kelsey has piloted this towboat for the last 20 years, pushing loads of sand and gravel upriver. From 1997 through 2000, I was a part…
Excerpt from the Pope’s Boat
Available Fall 2015 In August of 1981 after eight years working as a deckhand and a St. Paul harbor pilot aboard river towboats in the powerful currents and shifting channels of the mighty Mississippi River I thought I had met all sorts of water-borne critters but I never met anyone quite like the Pope. The…