The Mamie S Barrett was built in 1921 by Howard Shipyard of Indiana. The paddle wheeler was 146 feet long and 30 feet wide. Sold to the United States Corp. of Engineers she was moved to to Florence Alabama in 1923. In 1935 The Corp. renamed her “Penniman” when she was put into service as an inspection boat. Franklin D. Roosevelt used the boat as his headquarters on the Mississippi in 1942.

She was sold to Vollmer Brother’s Construction Company in 1947. Sold then to Spencer Merrills in 1949 when she was renamed “Piasa”. “Piasa”  was outfitted as a clubhouse with restaurant for the Harbor Point Yacht Club at Weston Alton, MO.

In 1981 Dick and Cathy Oberle moved her to Eddyville KY where she became a restaurant at a marina on the Cumberland River by Kentucky Lake under the original name “Mamie S Barrett”

John and Mary Houseman next purchased “The Mamie S Barrett” bringing her to Vicksburg MS in 1987 where she was converted to  a showboat with restaurant.

In the early 1990’s “The Mamie S Barrett was again sold to be used as a casino boat but was apparently never used as such.

During “The Great Flood of 1993”, the most damaging flood since 1927, that severely impacted river traffic bridges highways and railroads along the Mississippi the “Mamie S Barrett” was beached in a cut below Natchez MS.

Later moved to Vidalia LA some interest in uses for the boat dwindled away though it is n the list of the National register of Historic Places.

The Mamie S Barrett now rests abandoned high and dry some miles from the Mississippi River in Deerpark LA. where I took photos. She is so fascinating to me, eerily beautiful despite the ravages of time she mysteriously speaks to me of dark romance.