Piasa or Bald Eagle?

Old postcards provide us with images of bygone days. Even the colorized versions of old photographs help preserve history. But there is a danger that more recent postcards featuring reproductions of early events may contain erroneous information, since they were printed years afterward. I believe that is what happened with the postcard below, leaving us with a question: Is the first boat pictured the Bald Eagle or the Piasa?

There's no date for this colorized postcard showing three steamboats tied up at the Cape Girardeau wharf, but it was likely published after 1935.

On the reverse is information about the "scene of by-gone days": "Very few people, living today, can remember the sternwheel river boats like these plying the Mississippi River. This view made from a rare print shows three graceful 'old ladies' tied up at the river front.

"The boat on the right is the Eagle packet 'Cape Girardeau' later sold to the Greene Line Steamers who renovated it for excursion traffic and in 1935, was renamed 'Gordon C. Greene'. The center ship is the 'Tennessee Belle' and the sternwheeler on the left is the Eagle Packet 'Piasa' named for the legendary bird of Illinois Indian tribe near Alton, Illinois."

Housed in the Missourian's morgue is the "rare print" referenced on the postcard. It was taken between the spring of 1924, when the third steamer Cape Girardeau began operating on the Mississippi River, and February 1927, when construction began on the river bridge here. Note: There is no sign of bridge construction in the background of the photo.

Judith Ann Crow, my mentor and predecessor in the Missourian's library, identified the three boats, left to right, as the Bald Eagle, the Tennessee Belle and the Cape Girardeau. Now, Judy didn't cite her source for this information, but in matters of historical accuracy, she was rarely wrong.

Other sources back her up.

Roy L. Bardhau, in his 1951 booklet, "A History of the Eagle Packet Company”, indicates the Piasa worked the trade between Alton and Grafton, Illinois, rather than between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau/Commerce.

Also, "The Waterways Journal Weekly" identified this as the Bald Eagle rather than the Piasa in a 2018 article by Keith Norrington, while using the colored postcard as illustration. The article gives good histories of the Bald Eagle, the Tennessee Belle and the CG3.

Finally, I recently stumbled on an article in the Southeast Missourian published June 14, 1924. It supports Judy's identification and also provides a date for when the photograph was made.

LEVEE HERE IS BUSY PLACE THIS MORNING

The levee here was the scene of unusual activity this morning when three large steamers were tied up at the wharf at one time. The Bald Eagle and the Tennessee Belle were both here discharging freight and passengers while the Cape Girardeau was here for a short while with a special excursion.

The Tennessee Belle left this morning for St. Louis on its regular trip between there and Shiloh, Tennessee. She carried about 65 passengers.

The Bald Eagle substituted in the Cape Girardeau's place this trip and had a heavy load of freight in addition to leaving St. Louis with 60 passengers, among those for Cape Girardeau being Mrs. Frisch and daughter, Mr. Vogelsang, George Rodemeyer, Thomas Fuerger, wife and children, Mrs. Stern, V. Simmons, Henry Feist and son, Misses M. Lisanliner, Alma Howell, Hilda Huecker, Frances Livingston, Laura Chauncey, Mary Hausbrough, Mary Gayle, Mary Murphy, Ruth Getzlow, Drury, Russell, Grove; Charles Stubbs, Mr. and Mrs. Norwine and son, Mrs. Clarke, Mrs. Chittendon, Miss Ross, Miss Goehring, Mrs. Meyer, Miss Fox, Mrs. Cummings, Miss Johnson.