HUNTINGTON -- Huntington was founded as a railroad
town, but over the years it was a busy river town as well.
Many of the
freight-carrying steamboats that once plied the Ohio River routinely included
a stop
at Huntington as part of their schedules.
In 1904, the city leased to Dr. R. E. Vickers, as the Huntington Wharf
Storage Co., a plot of land at the foot of 10th Street
for use as a public
wharf. In 1926, the company turned over its wharf lease to the Greene Line of
Cincinnati.
About the same time, the company bought an adjacent parcel of
property from J.C. Carter.
Today, the Cincinnati-based Greene Line is best remembered as the operator
of the famed Delta Queen excursion boat.
But for many years the company owned
a number of boats that carried cargo to and from towns all along the Ohio
River.
From 1932 to 1943, the Greene Line steamer Evergreene traveled between
Huntington and Cincinnati three times a week,
carrying a mixed load of cargo.
When the Evergreene made its last trip from Huntington on Feb. 2, 1943,
the
company said there was no longer enough business to justify continuing the
service.
The city of Huntington unsuccessfully went to court, seeking an injunction
ordering that the boat be kept in service.
And it even turned to the federal
government, asking the Office of Defense Transportation to intervene and order
the
river company to continue serving Huntington as part of the war effort. No
such order was issued.
It might be noted that the steamboat Gordon C. Greene continued to operate
seven-day trips from
Cincinnati to New Martinsville, Charleston and back to
Cincinnati until 1948 but mention
of Huntington in the schedule was
conspicuously absent.
(Thanks to river historian Jerry Sutphin of Huntington for his assistance with this article.)