The Belle of Louisville Timeline
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1914
The Idlewild was launched on October 18th at Pittsburgh, PA. She served as a ferry between Memphis, Tennessee and West Memphis, Arkansas and moved freight as a day packet.
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1931
The Idlewild spent a season in Louisville running trips to Rose Island and Fontaine Ferry amusement parks.
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1934
After years of traveling U.S. waterways from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and Montana to Pennsylvania, the Belle returned to Louisville and stayed through World War II.
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1940's
The Idlewild offered moonlight cruises during the Big Band era and occasionally served as a USO nightspot on the Mississippi River to help the war effort.
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1948
Idlewild Master Ben Winters' death-bed wish was granted by renaming the boat Avalon.
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1949
The Avalon was sold to a group of Cincinnati investors. Over the next 13 years, she became the most widely-traveled river steamboat in American history.
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1962
The Avalon was put up for auction at Cincinnati. She was purchased by Jefferson County Judge Executive Marlow Cook for $34,000 and renamed the Belle of Louisville.
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1963
Countless hours were spent rebuilding and repairing the Belle. On April 30th, she began her new life by racing against the Delta Queen in the first Great Steamboat Race.
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1988
The Belle was highlighted as the nation’s oldest and most authentic river steamboat at the first celebration of the steamboat era, Tall Stacks in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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2005
In August, the Waterfront Development Corporation assumed the operation of the Belle of Louisville on behalf of Louisville Metro.
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2014
The Belle of Louisville will celebrate her 100th birthday with a 5-day gathering of her peers on Louisville's Waterfront, October 15-19. Y’all come!
- 1914
- 1931
- 1934
- 1940's
- 1948
- 1949
- 1962
- 1963
- 1988
- 2005
- 2014
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