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Picture out of Our Past
Photo CourHsy La. State Musaum
A WEALTH of riverboat history is packed into a small section of the New Orleans riverfront in this photo, made some time between 1885 and 1889.
The (our vessels are moored at the head of Cana] st. According to Leonard V. Huber, local authority on riverboat lore, they are (from left) the T. P. Leathers, the Dacotah, the Corona and the Garland.
Huber points out that the stacks of the T. P. Leathers have been removed, probably for repair. The Garland, he adds, is moored just about where the steamer President docks today.
Here are brief histories of the four boats, as compiled by Huber:
The T. P. Leathers, built in 1885, lasted about five years. In November, 1890, loaded down past her dry seams with 1700 bales of cotton and 8757 sacks of cotton seed, she took water and sank about three miles above Natchez.
The Dacotah was built in 1879. She was a ?mountain boat? and made seven trips up the Missouri river to Fort Benton, Mont. In 1889, she
was sold to Capt. William Boardman and .used in the New Orleans-Red river trade. The Dacotah was dismantled in 1893, and parts of her cabin went into the cotton stemwheeler Imperial.
Of the four boats, the Corona, built in 1878, had the most spectacular and tragic end. Rebuilt by Capt. Jack Blanks in 1889, she started out from New Orleans in October of that year on what was to be her last trip upriver. In an attempt to overtake the Warren, a rival which had an hour?s head start, the Corona blew up near Prophet?s island,
11	miles above Baton Rouge. Nearly 80 lives were lost.
The Garland, built in 1889 for Capt. George W. Rea, and named for Garland Stringfellow, daughter of a plantation owner who lived near Shreveport, sank at Beulah Landing, on the Red river near St. Maurice, La., some time in the 1890s.
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DIXIE, October 9, I960


Boardman Family 021
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