Date & Time
5:00pm CST - 7:00pm CST
About This Event
“Dine with us“ 1860’s Gage County Settler’s Fundraiser
Presents the “Founders of Beatrice 1857”
March 29, 2025
Dinner and Program at
Big Blue Social Hall
719 Market St Beatrice, NE 68310
Dinner starts at 5:30pm
Dessert and Program at 6:00pm
In promotion of the new Arcadia Press Images of America Book: “Beatrice” debuting June 2025. Proceeds go to the mason work of the CB&Q 1906 Passenger Depot.
Special Guest for the program is James Erwin author of the Steamboat Disasters of the Lower Missouri River (2020).
Program: Steamboat Disasters of the Lower Missouri River
During the nineteenth century, more than 300 boats met their end in the steamboat graveyard that was the Lower Missouri River – from just north of Omaha to its mouth. Although derided as little more than an “orderly pile of kindling,” steamboats were in fact technological marvels superbly adapted to the river’s conditions. Their light superstructure and long, wide, flat hulls powered by high-pressure engines drew so little water that they could cruise on “a heavy dew” even when fully loaded. But these same characteristics made them susceptible to fire, ice, explosions, and snags (tree trunks ripped from the banks, hiding under the water’s surface). And the river held other dangers – disease, crime and (in time of war) guerrillas and saboteurs.
This is the story of the perils that steamboats, their passengers and crews faced on every voyage.
About This Event
“Dine with us“ 1860’s Gage County Settler’s Fundraiser
Presents the “Founders of Beatrice 1857”
March 29, 2025
Dinner and Program at
Big Blue Social Hall
719 Market St Beatrice, NE 68310
Dinner starts at 5:30pm
Dessert and Program at 6:00pm
In promotion of the new Arcadia Press Images of America Book: “Beatrice” debuting June 2025. Proceeds go to the mason work of the CB&Q 1906 Passenger Depot.
Special Guest for the program is James Erwin author of the Steamboat Disasters of the Lower Missouri River (2020).
Program: Steamboat Disasters of the Lower Missouri River
During the nineteenth century, more than 300 boats met their end in the steamboat graveyard that was the Lower Missouri River – from just north of Omaha to its mouth. Although derided as little more than an “orderly pile of kindling,” steamboats were in fact technological marvels superbly adapted to the river’s conditions. Their light superstructure and long, wide, flat hulls powered by high-pressure engines drew so little water that they could cruise on “a heavy dew” even when fully loaded. But these same characteristics made them susceptible to fire, ice, explosions, and snags (tree trunks ripped from the banks, hiding under the water’s surface). And the river held other dangers – disease, crime and (in time of war) guerrillas and saboteurs.
This is the story of the perils that steamboats, their passengers and crews faced on every voyage.
Getting There
Big Blue Social Hall
719 Market St.
Beatrice , Nebraska 68310
United States
Date & Time
5:00pm CST - 7:00pm CST