{"nrhp_refnum":"83002066","name":"MISSISSIPPI III","other_names":["Showboat Becky Thatcher"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"237 Front St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Marietta","county":"Washington County","state":"OH","lat":39.412561021000045,"lon":-81.44972597999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-09-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Maritime History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A steel-hulled sternwheel steamboat, built 1926-27 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the Mississippi River Commission's inspection steamer, now permanently moored on the Muskingum River at 237 Front Street, Marietta, Ohio, and also known as the showboat Becky Thatcher.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is one of the last artifacts of early Mississippi River navigation and maintenance, and the last working sternwheeler built by the Corps of Engineers. It carried commission inspection tours, served as a towboat after 1932, and hosted dignitaries. It is also noted as the last of the Texas-deck sternwheel packet-style boats.","narrative":"Moored on the Muskingum River at Marietta, this sternwheel steamboat began life in 1926-27 as the Mississippi III, an inspection and work vessel designed and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Mississippi River Commission. Her steel hull carried a wooden cabin moved from the earlier Mississippi II. She carried commission members and visiting officials on spring and fall inspection trips, supervised levee and bank work, rescued flood victims, and after 1932 pushed barges. The nomination describes her as the last working sternwheeler the Corps built. Retired in 1961, she became a restaurant and museum in Hannibal and St. Louis under the name Becky Thatcher II. A local nonprofit brought her to Marietta in 1975. The interior was largely rebuilt, and the engines and boilers were removed, but the hull, smokestacks, paddlewheel, pilot house and windows remain. Today the main deck holds a theatre and the upper decks a restaurant.","period_of_significance":"1926","architect_builder":"U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; new steel hull built at the Howard Shipyard, Jeffersonville, Indiana","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Permanently moored in Marietta; the main deck is a theatre and the upper decks are leased as a restaurant. Interior heavily altered, engines and boilers removed, no longer a traveling vessel.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:15.186892-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/83002066.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002066/1f9a011c97-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83002066/1f9a011c97-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Lee Paxton","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BeckyThatcheratNevilleIsland.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Lee Paxton</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BeckyThatcheratNevilleIsland.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"01001040","name":"Marietta Historic District (Boundary Decrease)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/ohio/marietta-historic-district-boundary-decrease-01001040/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991955","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_III","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q111324705"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/washington-county/mississippi-iii-83002066/"}