Not to do with riverboats as such, but "The Banks of the Ohio" is a great old-time song. Should be in the DT, if you don't know it.

As to that last message, "my boat lies low", of course that relates to the parts of the season when the falls of the Ohio were impassable in low water, and all traffic had to stop, often for months.

This brings me to a tale of Indiana history, which might be of interest.

New Albany, Indiana prospered in the old days, and was the metropolis of this part of the river, just because of the income from the stranded boatmen--bars, roominghouses, suppliers of various sorts, and from transporting cargo around the falls. New Albany looked forward to low water, as you can imagine.

Merchants from upriver, however, were hurt by this phenomenon, and a delegation from Cincinnati and other upstream cities visited the city fathers of prosperous and bustling New Albany, asking to have a canal built to get around the falls. The aforesaid city fathers in effect said, "Not on your tintype!" Although they may have been more tactful than that. There was no way they were going to finance a canal which would do them out of that low-water income!

The upriver merchants then went across and spoke to a tiny burg across the river, called Louisville. Louisville was interested.

And there, ladies and gentlemen, stands Louisville, and there stands New Albany, of which many people have never heard in their lives. The moral should not have to be underlined here.

True History.

Dave Oesterreich