Photos of Chet from his collection. Courtesy of the family of Chester Foster. 

At the end of June, Belle of Louisville Riverboats was gifted an album belonging to one of the first engineers of the Belle era, Chester “Chet” Foster.

We were so excited to get the chance to digitize this collection, which spanned fifty years of Chet’s life. Some of the documents in this album dated back 100 years, to the 1920s when Chet was first getting licensed as a steamboat engineer.

One part of this collection that we found striking was this letter between friends from 1929, which captures a close relationship between two young men a century ago finding their footing in their new adult lives. The letter, written by J.A. McCombs, talks about moving to Chicago, Illinois for school. Notice the complaints about the traffic: I wish I had left my care [sic] in Lou. There is to much trafi [sic] to bee driving here. Some things never change!

Receiving this album was yet another reminder how deep the history of the Belle runs. Many of our passengers remember the Belle’s early days in the city. At that time, our crew learned their skills (which they had likely thought were obsolete) during the Golden Age of Steamboats. Rumor has it that some of them even knew Mark Twain in his steamboating days.

They passed their knowledge along to others, so that our current-day crew are using skills that are nearly 200 years old. And we think that’s something to celebrate!

We’ll keep sharing more of this collection, and others, as the season continues! We hope you stay tuned.