Wisconsin Life

The history of La Crosse is forged by the waterways that traverse Western Wisconsin.

– Ellis Inman: You get out here on the upper Mississippi River, you've got the towering bluffs faced right up to the river and all the wildlife.

- Ellis Inman knows this river well.

- This is my dad, Bo Inman.

My father was captain of the Julia Belle in the '90s.

[steam whistle warbles] - The Julia Belle Swain is a paddle-wheeled steamboat that first cruised the Illinois River in Peoria.

– Ellis: Everybody in Peoria was really sad to see her go.

[steam whistle] - The paddle-wheeler arrived in La Crosse in 1995.

With its history of steamboat building, La Crosse would be a perfect port for this famous queen of the river.

[whistle blows, paddle whisks] - Ellis: It's pretty amazing.

It's been in major motion pictures, had albums and songs written about it.

- This steamboat is also where Ellis felt at home on the water.

– Ellis: I spent lots of time on that boat as a child.

I might have been, at one point in time, the only kid on the Mississippi River working on a steamboat.

[blowing off steam] I like to joke that the Julia Belle Swain was my first love.

[steam whistle] - But not even love could save the Julia Belle.

- Definitely, it hurt a lot of people.

- In 2008, her paddlewheel churned upriver for the very last time.

– Ellis: It's hard to believe how many people it's touched.

And that's exactly why everybody was so disappointed and why they were so sad and hurt by the fact that the Julia Belle shuttered and was laid up.

- It remained dormant until the Julia Belle Swain Foundation set out to restore and preserve this piece of La Crosse history.

– Ellis: We're very lucky that the Julia Belle still even floats after the last several years of neglect.

Anything that's built to move and built to run gets destroyed by just sitting.

- Then, just like the muddy Mississippi River, those renovation plans got muddied, millions of dollars spent, and mounting costs sank the project.

– Ellis: It was a lot for people to deal with; it really was.

A foundation dissolving and not being able to finish the project.

[calliope music] The sadness, the fact that you'll never get to experience that again.

- But Old Man River has a way of never giving up and always pushing forward.

– Ellis: The river brings lots of people together for lots of reasons.

[torch sparking] I had not expected to come back to Wisconsin and work on the boat.

[circular saw buzzes] - Angela: This time, new owners would put Ellis at the helm of restoration efforts.

- I guess I have never really felt any excitement quite like that... stepping back on the boat, knowing that we're breathing life back into this project.

- It is also a chance to revitalize the historic riverboat his dad once captained.

- I guess coming back, I kind of feel like a kid again.

[chuckles] I feel like I'm where I should be.

- Ellis would not only work on the Julia Belle, but also the Spirit of Peoria riverboat restoration.

– Ellis: I like to call 'em stepsisters.

[tool buzzing] Obviously, from Peoria, Illinois, the boat replaced the Julia Belle Swain back in the '80s.

[ratchet clicking] Every day is exciting; every day is something new.

- By this point, the Julia Belle hadn't rolled on the river in 14 years.

- Just sitting is bad for a boat.

It's killed some of the greatest boats that we've ever had.

- Despite past attempts at preservation, years of standing idle proved unkind to the steamboat.

– Ellis: Once she got here and we got into the project, we realized that there were a lot of changes that needed to be made.

We dove right in, torn her apart.

- Torn apart and put back together with a few more bells and whistles.

- Don't want to pull any punches here.

She won't be the same as she was.

Once we're finished with her, she's going to be very different.

At her core, at her heart, she'll still be a steamboat.

- The one thing that won't change: her 110-year-old steam engines.

– Ellis: They've had more than a million miles logged on them.

I'm looking forward to the steam engines [key ring clinking] jumping back into life.

The sounds, the sights, the smells, it's all part of it.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

It'll be definitely an experience.

- For La Crosse, it's more bittersweet.

- It was quite emotional.

- In December of 2023, a barge escorted the stepsisters downriver as the city bid farewell to the riverboats.

- There's only five Sternwell steamboats left.

The bigger picture is that we're working on this so that we can inspire another generation of steamboaters.

- Their makeover will continue, and eventually, both will have a new riverfront home, but not in La Crosse.

- When we get to Nashville, we'll be a wedding destination of the South.

It's already a huge wedding destination, but once this boat's there, we'll be offering fully curated weddings.

[calliope] She'll still be America's finest example of a Sternwell steamboat, in my opinion.

- As for Ellis, he has no intention of ever leaving his first love.

I don't know that I'll ever say goodbye again.

[cheerful calliope] I'm looking forward to a long future, either on the Julia Belle or at least close enough that I can hear her whistle.

[whistle blowing triumphantly, Ellis laughs] [cheers and applause]