Paddlewheeler readying for tours

A recently renovated paddlewheeler, the City of New Orleans, is set to start Mississippi River cruises around Jan. 21 from New Orleans. The paddlewheeler is coming full circle back to Louisiana where it was built in 1991. For years it operated as a casino boat in Rock Island, Ill., until the mid-1990s, but had sat unused for years until it was purchased by the New Orleans Steamboat Company in 2016. The company’s other paddlewheeler, the Natchez, will go into its annual maintenance period later this month. The Natchez is one of only six commercially-operated steamboats left in the U.S. The new boat is run with a modern diesel-electric system. "Even though we don't have the steam engines, we do have the working paddlewheel, and we want to show that off," Matthew Dow, project manager for the new paddlewheeler told NOLA.com. (Source: NOLA.com 01/02/19)