Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1983. 17 historic map sheets show this location, the earliest from 1904.
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From the record
“MV Mississippi is a United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) towboat operating on the Mississippi River. It is the largest diesel towboat on the river.”
Wikipedia article MV Mississippi, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 39 National Register listings in Washington County · listed in 1983 · category: STRUCTURE · significant for TRANSPORTATION; MARITIME HISTORY · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Washington County.
Area of significance. TRANSPORTATION; MARITIME HISTORY
Acreage. 0.9
Also known as. Showboat Becky Thatcher
Township. Marietta city
National Register reference number.83002066- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Then and now
1904 to 1994
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
90 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
Tenney, George Champion, age 20, volunteer. May. 1862, three months. Eighty-seventh regiment, company A, private, served four months, mustered out Septem- Ijer, 1862 ; re-enlistment, volunteer. May, 1864, one hundred days. One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment, company A. corporal, served four months, mustered out 1864, also member of the independent company in Marietta,
Darrow, Allen R., age 38, volunteer. May, 1864, one hundred days. One Hundred and Forty-eighth regiment, first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster, served four months, mustered out in September, 1864, one of the original members of the National guards, organized in Marietta in 1863.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 13 fires within 5 miles of MISSISSIPPI III between
1999 and 2019, burning about 5 acres in total. 2 started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
8
Equipment and vehicle use
2
Natural
2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 1,269 specimens
collected within 10 miles of MISSISSIPPI III between 1853 and
1975: 1,182 Animalia, 54 Fungi, 31 Plantae, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. D. Selby, A. Drew, A. L. McElhose and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
6 workings within 5 miles of MISSISSIPPI III: 4 producers, 1 plant, 1 past producer.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Manganese, Chromium, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Marietta, the town this property stands in, in 68 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 31 thunderstorm wind, 25 hail, 5 flood, 3 lightning.
The reports record 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A double wide mobile home was destroyed after its roof was blown off. The home was located on Warren Township Road 277. Seven people were in the home at the time, 3 were taken to the hospital with minor injuries and later released. The National Weather Service survey estimated winds of 60 to 70 mph from the microburst.
Numerous large trees were blown down by strong wind gusts. The wind was associated with a bow echo configuration to the thunderstorms. Wind gusts of around 70 mph likely occurred. Several homes and businesses were hit by fallen trees. Residents described the aftermath in the hardest hit portions of downtown Marietta as looking like a war zone.
Rains of 2.5 to 4.5 inches fell in less than 3 hours. The 24 hour rain amount from the cooperative observer at Newport was 4.7 inches. The Marietta cooperative observer had 2.94 inches. Streams such as Long Run and Newell Run flooded and forced a few evacuations. Many residents were stuck in their homes. The Newport fire chief said, We couldn't get to them because they couldn't see the bridges. Basically every direction we went there was rushing water, it looked like a whitewater river.||More urban streams such as Goose Run flooded basements around Marietta.
Thunderstorms moved from east to west crossing the Ohio River from West Virginia. The city of Marietta hauled 130 loads of fallen limbs away over a eight day cleanup period. At least two homes were damaged. A dairy barn was heavily damaged in Warren Township. A tree fell onto a car in Belpre.
Downpours associated with severe thunderstorms overwhelmed the city drainage system, causing brief street flooding. Water got into a few basements. The cooperative observer measured 2.6 inches for its 24 hour rain amount, most of which fell within about 2 hours.
Thunderstorms moved from east to west crossing the Ohio River from West Virginia. The city of Marietta hauled 130 loads of fallen limbs away over a eight day cleanup period. At least two homes were damaged. A dairy barn was heavily damaged in Warren Township. A tree fell onto a car in Belpre.
Thunderstorm winds blew a large section of roofing material off a rehabilitation center. Power lines were also blown down in town, causing power outages.
Thunderstorms moved from east to west crossing the Ohio River from West Virginia. The city of Marietta hauled 130 loads of fallen limbs away over a eight day cleanup period. At least two homes were damaged. A dairy barn was heavily damaged in Warren Township. A tree fell onto a car in Belpre.
A strong rise on the Little Muskingum River occurred. The crest was over 19 feet at the gauge near Bloomfield. Minor overflow along the usual low spots of Route 26 was the result. A few sections of the road were closed.
Trees fell in scattered locations about the town. Two large umbrellas, used to shelter kids from the sun, were ripped from their tables and blew away at the YMCA.
The stream gage on Duck Creek near Whipple showed the creek rose above its 12 foot flood stage late on the 25th. The creek crested at 12.4 feet just before sunrise on the 26th and had returned to its banks by mid morning. This flooded sections of State Routes 26, 145 and 821.
The stream gauge on Duck Creek at Whipple crested just over 12 feet late afternoon on the 18th. Bankfull is 11 feet. Minor flooding occurred along sections of State Routes 26, 146 and 821 in central Washington County.
1 paper published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 1,733 issues,
8,183 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by geocoding the property's own street address, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
into forty-six watertight compartments with a "crash compartment" on either side of the passenger boat, and was the showpiece of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Although considerable interior alteration has taken place over the years (as described her duties as a workboat, such as the hull, smokestacks, tow bar and paddlewheel are bar and bell have been painted on several occasions, but other than that have not been The cabin and superstructure of the MISSISSIPPI III were completed in 1922 as part of in 1926, the cabin of the MISSISSIPPI II was still in such excellent condition that it material, and contacting the Corps of Engineers in Marietta, Ohio, Huntington, West Virginia, and Memphis, Tennessee, no further information on the original structure, especially the interior, has been discovered.
According to information gathered by Keith Norrington and other articles (see information from Ruth Ferris, curator of the Midship Steamboat Museum, indicates that Democrat, from Little Rock, Arkansas, noted in an article dated November 20, 1960, that to make her suitable for towing barges, and she was placed in towing service. It has been documented by Mr. Norrington and Miss Ferris, that after retirement and decommissioning on April 19, 1961, the MISSISSIPPI III was sold to Mark Twain Enterprises up alongside the GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT. In May of 1964, she was towed upriver to Hannibal, St. Louis, purchased the MISSISSIPPI III from Mark Twain Enterprises and she was towed for the BECKY THATCHER II, was the hull of the BECKY THATCHER I. 7.
Description Condition ruins unexposed indicates when the renovation took place or what was involved.Frank C. Pierson of XX altered Check one Interior restoration work on the BECKY THATCHER II began in June,1968,and was The MISSISSIPPI III was the third of a line of river craft bearing that name.
(in one paragraph) The MISSISSIPPI III derives much of her significance because she is one of the last served primarily as a workboat, however, she was also outfitted as a fine passenger boat to sustain an embankment.): After 1932, she added towing to her other duties. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District Public Affairs Office, the United States Congress took Federal action and created the MRC in 1879 to meet the growing need for river President and included three ofticers of the Army corps of Engineers, one of whom was to be the President of the commission; one member from the U.S. Coast Guard and Geodetic and investigations to improve the river channel; protecting the banks of the river; and Postal Service.
a River and Harbor Act which relieved the MRC of the responsibility of carrying on the Act of Congress also gave the MRC its first money for improving the Lower Mississippi. In January of 1893, at Paducah, Kentucky, the entire superstructure of the MISSISSIPPI I 1918. Such dignitaries as Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were Tife, so she was transferred to the U.S. Army Engineer District at Memphis, Tennessee. The Mississippi River Commission selected the steamer LEOTA for conversion to an down and her hull and machinery were sent to New Orleans where new boilers were installed until declared unserviceable in 1926.
1700-1799 1600-1699 1800-1899 1400-1499 invention theater industry engineering music education Builder/Architect humanitarian conservation law XX transportation _economics and a new cabin was completed in 1922.LEOTA was renamed MISSISSIPPI II.She operated 8. Significance Specific dates 1926 RIVER MAINTENANCE Corps of Engineers In 1874,Congress authorized the President to create a commission to study "reclamation In 1881,the commission was authorized $45,000 for procuring an inspection steamer. - - philosophy - archeology-prehistoric - - community planning .
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 83002066, 58 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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