FLORIDA MEMORIES
‘FLORIDA’S INLAND GRAVEYARD OF SHIPS’ UPPER APALACHICOLA’S UNBELIEVABLE MARITIME DESTINATION Written by: Dale Cox
Left to right: The paddlewheel steamer J.W. Hires, launched in 1898, at Columbus, Georgia, later sank at Chattahoochee, the John W. Callahan operated along the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint rivers. Named for her owner, she made many stops at Chattahoochee before sinking in the Chipola River near Wewahitchka, and the wreck of the paddlewheeler Albany, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel as seen in 1961 at Chattahoochee, Florida.
And with good reason.
Maritime archaeologists and historians say that traces of more than a dozen of the beautiful old vessels can still be seen along the Apalachicola between today’s cities of Chattahoochee and Sneads in northwest Florida.
WHAT CAUSED SO MANY TO WRECK THERE?
The confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers—where the Apalachicola is formed—and a sharp bend immediately below, created a navigational hazard that combined with any mishap of machinery or the crews to cause the boats to pile up on the banks. The result was the death of many wellknown “floating palaces”—and scores of people as well. The best known of the fading beauties is the most recent. The Barbara Hunt began life in 1929 as a paddlewheel towboat on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. She pushed barges up and down the mighty waters of the American Midwest with engines that produced only 137-horsepower— less than many Florida pleasure craft today—for 11 years. The Columbus Towing Company bought the Barbara Hunt in 1938 and brought her south to the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint River system.
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F L O R I DAC O U N T RY D e c e m b e r 2 0 2 1 | J a n u a r y 2 0 2 2
OLD BEFORE HER TIME
Railroads and modern highways destroyed the economic viability of commercial steamboat traffic on Florida waterways, however, before the Barbara Hunt ever turned her bow north up the Apalachicola. Investors launched a massive publicity campaign, touting the advantages of using the boat to push fuel barges up the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers to the terminals of Columbus, Georgia. Crowds gathered on bridges and along the riverbanks to experience the novelty of the sternwheel boat passing, a sight that many never expected to see again. But commercial interests turned deaf ears to the plan. The Barbara Hunt was tied to the Jackson County shore and abandoned just below the U.S. Highway 90 bridge opposite Chattahoochee, Florida. She sank there in 1940. When the river is low, you can still walk her deck and see the remains of the paddlewheel. Like all archaeological sites in the Apalachicola River, the wreck of the Barbara Hunt is protected by federal law and artifact collecting is strictly prohibited.
BEST AND EASIEST PLACE TO SEE
The best and easiest place to see the “Inland Graveyard of Ships” is on the opposite side of the river at Chattahoochee’s River Landing Park. Plus, many of the wrecks there are much older! River Landing Park was the site of an important steamboat port during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hundreds of
PHOTOS COURTESY OF STATE ARCHIVES OF FLORIDA
T
he wrecks of so many paddlewheel steamboats line the banks of the upper two miles of the Apalachicola River that maritime aficionados call the stretch “Florida’s Inland Graveyard of Ships.”
