Into The Night

The Delta Queen makes its way south between the Mississippi River bridges just before midnight Monday as a train travels east on the Hwy 80 bridge. Marty Kittrell - The Vicksburg Post

A group gathers at City Front Monday afternoon for a tribute celebration for the Delta Queen, docked to the right, west, of the American Queen. Marty Kittrell . The Vicksburg Post

Queen steams into uncharted future....

The authentic Mississippi River steamboat that kept the packet era alive in Vicksburg left City Front at midnight, steaming into an uncertain future.

On what may be its final passage downriver to New Orleans, the Delta Queen stopped for a celebration and tribute, attended by Mayor Leyens and about 75 people - young, old and in-between - with cameras, lawn chairs and dogs on leashes.

"People come to Mississippi to see the river and to see the boats going up and down the river," Leyens said from the deck of the American Queen, which is escorting the Delta Queen. "The tourism associated with these vessels had been very important to Vicksburg.

"The Delta Queen is the last authentic steam-powered passenger paddle boat in existence," said Bill Wiemuth, the boat's resident historian, in an interview aboard the Delta Queen. "Steam is the only thing that moves this boat, and that's not very different from the way it's been for two centuries here on the river."

Under the 1966 Safety of Life at Seas Act (SOLAS), the Delta Queen may still make day trips - but had not overnight passengers when it left Vicksburg, perhaps for the last time. Wiemuth said crew members remain hopeful that Congress will still manage to pass an 11th hour measure to keep the boat operating, though with the change in ownership a disruption of spring and summer cruises is probably inevitable.

The Delta Queen was originally scheduled to leave with the American Queen at 6 p.m. Monday, but because the larger vessel had blocked the city's view of the Delta Queen during the day, the crew revised the schedule and kept the steamboat in Vicksburg until midnight.

"But even if an exemption is passed by the new Congress in January, with brochures to be printed and other marketing decisions, it would still be feasible to offer a fall cruise schedule," he said.

"We wanted you to get a good look at her before she sailed down the river and around the bend, possibly into the pages of history," Wiemuth told the crowd, just before the calliope was heard offering its final tribute to Vicksburg, with "You Are My Sunshine." (Click here for Video)