Our final tourist spot was The Lone Star Steamer which was part of The Buffalo Bill Museum....
The Lone Star was built in 1869 and worked primarily as a towboat. By the early 1960's it was the last boat of its kind still operating in the United States. It worked continuously for 98 years until August of 1967 when it failed its Coast Guard inspection and was retired from service.
The pilot house was a simple affair and lacked the modern electronic aids of today. The large wooden ships wheel was its only form of control. It had a device for the captain to communicate with the engineer in the engine room, but there wasn't even any radar and certainly no computers.
The steamer was powered by coal that was shoveled by firemen into the twin, fire tube boilers. The fireman also had to keep close watch on the pressure gauge and maintain a steady pressure of 240 psi. The boilers had to be washed and scraped every 2 weeks to remove mud and scale.
This is the paddlewheel off the rear of the steamer....
We got to check out the interior of the steamer. This was an extremely small sleeping room and had only one small cot in it.
Here's a replica of the steamer. The Lone Star was built to operate on the upper Mississippi River and could navigate in as little as 4 feet of water. She is considered the last of her kind in existence in the United States. It was quite fun to get to climb around on her and explore.
Before we left to return home we had to stop and grab a couple of geocaches. We tossed dad out of the car to grab this one....
The cache on the river was hard to find because of all the rocks. We also had to watch our step or we'd end up taking a swim. But dad managed to come up with it and mom signed us in....
The cache by the Wayside Chapel was a multi cache and we had to find a clue on one of the buildings that would then lead us to the final location....
Let's just say I was glad I didn't have to crawl under here.....
But we did find the cache!
And finally we ended up at the Pleasant Hill School....
School wasn't open that day and we were determined to see what was inside....
Not the best view and I was disappointed that we couldn't gain access....
And that ends our tour of LeClaire, Iowa. Visiting the Antique Archaeology store had been on my wish list for awhile, and we had a great time exploring the cute little town while we were there and grabbing a couple of geocaches while we were at it. We packed a lot of activity into a one day trip. Next on my wish list is the Antique Archaeology store in Nashville.
