This site currently features photographs (most featuring towboats in the Portland Canal) of the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky, in January and February 1999. Many of them have appeared in small versions on this website. They have been rescanned and now can be seen at approx. 3600x2400 pixels (8 megapixels).

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine seems to have some photos from earlier versions of this website, though it is a hit-or-miss thing. If you have the patience, try the
Wayback Machine archived versions of this website. (Javascript must be enabled.)

Towboat (and a few non-towboat) Links

1. Old River Bill's Home Page
2. Towboat Joe's Inland River Models
3. Locate a boat:
   • Vessel locations on the Mississippi and Ohio River systems
   • Vessels in McAlpine and Cannelton pools of Ohio River
   • Queue list for McAlpine Locks
   • Locate a vessel by vessel name or vessel number (RPT04)
   • Ingram Barge boat positions
   • AEP boat positions (plus some non-AEP boats) sorted by boat name or river
   • ACBL boat positions sorted by boat name or river (See river codes in PDF format)
   • Live Ships river traffic maps:
     • Louisville, Kentucky (Ohio River mile 604) (May be offline.)
     • Rabbit Hash, Kentucky (Ohio River mile 506)
     • Parkersburg, West Virginia (Ohio River mile 184)
     • St. Louis, Missouri (Upper Mississippi River mile 179)
4. Find out more information about a boat:
   • NOAA Fisheries Vessel Documentation Search By Name
   • NOAA Fisheries Vessel Documentation Search By ID Number
   • Coast Guard PSIX Vessel Search Page
   • U.S. Shipbuilding History and Related Information, including Howard's Shipyard & Dock Co., Jeffboat and Marine Builders (from Maritime Business Strategies)
5. Ohio River levels and flow information:
   • Ohio River Forecast Center (from National Weather Service)
   • Ohio River flow and velocity forecasts
   • Observed and predicted stages for Louisville area and entire Mississippi River basin
   • Recent Ohio River levels (from USGS) at Clark (2nd St.) Bridge (above McAlpine Dam) and Kosmosdale (below McAlpine Dam) - You can select format (graph or table) and time interval
   • Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service clickable map (from National Weather Service)
   • Hydrographs and other info for McAlpine upper gauge and McAlpine lower gauge
6. Louisville District Locks and Dams (including McAlpine) descriptions and history
7. McAlpine Locks and Dam Replacement Project
8. Olmsted Locks and Dam Construction Project
9. Waterways Journal
10. The Stern Watch
11. River Industry Bulletin Board
12. Waterways Equipment Exchange
13. Steamboat Belle of Louisville
14. Majestic America Line (no longer offering cruises, but their site has info about steamboats Delta Queen and American Queen)
15. Great Lakes and Seaway Shipping (boatnerd.com)
16. Tug and Tow (photos from England)
17. M/V Bootsie B. under construction
18. The River School
19. Dan Owen's Boat Photo Museum
20. Little River Books home page, photo center (no longer updated) and news archives (no longer updated)
21. M/V Barbara H, formerly Donald B (sternwheel towboat) at the Historic Sternwheeler Preservation Society
22. Alan's Boatyard (model building in Great Britain)
23. WWW.TUGBOAT.NL (Dutch tugboat site)
24. John Shipnet's home page and towboat page (photos from Holland)
25. Shove It! With a Towboat (formerly Towbiz)
26. US 82 Greenville Bridge construction
27. Life on the Mississippi River with David Estrada
28. Duivendijk Photo Pages (ships and tugs)
29. Wheelhouse Report
30. U.S. Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley
31. Ohio River Navigation Charts (Note gap in chart numbers due to different editions.)
    • Ohio River Charts 1-122 (Cairo, Illinois [mile 981] to Foster, Kentucky [mile 436])
    • Ohio River Charts 122-181 (Foster, Kentucky [mile 436] to New Martinsville, West Virginia [mile 127])
    • Ohio River Charts 187-224 (New Martinsville, West Virginia [mile 127] to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [mile 0])
32. W.Va. Towboat Photos
33. Dick's Towboat Gallery and Dick's Riverboat Gallery
34. WFN page at Inland Marine Radio History Archive
35. Louisville Municipal Boat Harbor
36. Living Lands and Waters
37. Binnenvaart.web-log (in Dutch)
38. Towboat World and Tugs & Tows discussion groups
39. Media stories about towboating
    • Life on a Towboat (from Minnesota Public Radio) story and slide show
    • Mississippi Drifting (from Riverfront Times)
    • Piloting 1,000 feet of barges (from MSNBC)
      Slide shows in this article require Adobe Flash player. If they don't appear within the article, try opening them in separate windows: First and second double-cut lockage slide shows.
    • Three-part story on towboating from Christian Science Monitor: Part One, Part Two and Part Three
    • The rhythm of river life (from Southeast Missourian)
40. Sons and Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen
41. Inland Riverboats Photograph Collection at Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
    • City of Louisville
    • Idlewild (first photo depicts the 1870 Idlewild; others depict the 1914 Idlewild which was renamed Avalon in 1948 and Belle of Louisville in 1962)
    • Avalon (first photos depict the 1898 Avalon; others depict the former Idlewild)
    • Belle of Louisville
    • Lockage (several photos depict tows at the old 600-foot lock at Locks and Dam No. 41, later renamed McAlpine Locks and Dam)