Paddlewheel Steamboat Montgomery - Pickensville, Alabama

U.S. Snagboat Montgomery

Many residents living along the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers in Florida, Alabama and Georgia can still remember the days when the paddlewheel riverboat Montgomery used to churn its way up and down the waterway. The historic steamboat is now on permanent display in Pickensville, Alabama.

The historic snagboat was built in Charleston for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1926. For nearly sixty years it worked to keep the channels of a number of Southern rivers free from snags and debris. By the time the Montgomery was retired in 1982, it was one of the last original paddlewheel steamboats of its kind in the United States.

Pilot House of the Montgomery

In 1984, after its days of use as a snagboat were over, the Montgomery doubled as a Mississippi riverboat in the made for tv movie Louisiana. Starring Margot Kidder, that film ended with a steamboat race and a boiler "explosion" aboard the Montgomery.

Once its starring role was over, the steamboat was restored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and placed on permanent display at the Tom Bevill Visitor Center in Pickensville, Alabama. It has since undergone a second restoration and been placed on display in a dry slip adjacent to the visitor center.

To learn more about the historic U.S. Snagboat Montgomery, please visit http://www.exploresouthernhisotry.com/montgomeryboat.