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History of the Bavarian Belle
The Bavarian Belle
began her career 1981 on the Mississippi River, in
La Crosse, Wisconsin at La Crosse Boat Works.
Near completion of construction, she was taken down
the Mississippi River and up the Ohio River to
Evansville, Indiana.
 She
was fitted out and began operation as the Spirit of
Evansville, a dinner-cruise and charter riverboat.
After 5 years in Evansville the owners, Kentuckiana
Packet Lines, took her down the Ohio, down the
Mississippi and up the Arkansas River to North
Little Rock, Arkansas. She continued operating
as a dinner-cruise and charter riverboat with the
new name of Spirit of North Little Rock.
Fifteen years later, in 2000, she was purchased by
Frankenmuth River Tours for sightseeing tours in
Frankenmuth, Michigan.
Preparing the newly
named Bavarian Belle for transport to Frankenmuth
Michigan was the first of our major projects.
We (Captain Jene and two sons, Captain Stan and
Captain Mitch) spent 3 months in Little Rock,
Arkansas making modifications to and dismantling the
Bavarian Belle for transport to Michigan. Our
first thought on
 transporting
the Bavarian Belle, was to bring her north via water
down the Arkansas River up the Mississippi River and
up the Ohio River to Chicago, Illinois. From
there, we would either sail around the Great Lakes
or have her put on a barge and towed to Saginaw Bay
to Bay City, Michigan. From there take her by
truck to Frankenmuth. A third option was
to put her on a truck in Chicago and take her by
land from Chicago to Frankenmuth. Getting the
Belle to Chicago was relatively easy, from there the
three options got very dangerous (sailing around the
Great Lakes) and got very expensive.
The safest and most
reasonable option, therefore, was to dismantle the
Belle in Little Rock and place her on two flatbed
trucks and
 transport
entirely by land. Three months preparation was
required to ready her for placement on the trucks.
The two trucks left North Little Rock in November of
2000. Bad weather caused several delays on the
trip to Michigan so the Belle and did not arrive in
Frankenmuth, MI until late January, 2001.
Upon arriving in
Frankenmuth, she placed in Frankenmuth's Heritage
Park.
The months of February through May, 2001 were spent
re-assembling, re-plumbing, re-powering and updating
the Bavarian Belle to begin our first season in
June, 2001.
 The
Bavarian Belle was lifted into the Cass River in
June of 2001 where she has been operating as a
sightseeing tour riverboat during the months of May
through mid-October each year.
Our Goal
We are a
family operated company. Our goal is to leave
a lasting, positive impression on our customers by
providing a high quality, entertaining, educational,
reasonably priced experience on an authentic
riverboat. |
