“The Showboat” Was “American” Not “Canadian”

During the last several weeks, local media have reported about the fate of The Showboat that was moored on the Port Chester side of the Byrum River. Unfortunately, this mainstay in the Greenwich and Port Chester area for more than 50 years was damaged severely during its transfer to a transport ship. Then, it was condemed unceremoniously at a Connecticut scrapyard.

The Showboat in a previous life was the Mark Twain. During the 1960s, it was docked at the Showboat Hotel (later the Greenwich Harbor Inn) in Greenwich. Before that, it was one of two sternwheelers (The American and The Canadian) that were featured at Freedomland U.S.A., a 1960-1964 theme park located on the site now occupied by Co-op City and the Bay View Shopping Plaza in The Bronx. (Visit the Freedomland Facebook page for memories. A book about the history of Freedomland will be published within a few weeks by Theme Park Press.)

Due to false information that often was repeated in newspaper articles after Freedomland closed, and in articles, blog posts and word of mouth since, many people to this day, including the recent owner of The Showboat, believed and continued to convey the story that the boat in Greenwich Harbor was The Canadian from Freedomland. But, the Mark Twain /The Showboat actually once was The American. Its sister boat, The Canadian, traveled farther into Connecticut (Johnsonville Village in East Haddam) before it was destroyed during 2005.

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Photo: The American at Freedomland. It later became the Mark Twain and then The Showboat. Courtesy M. Virgintino

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Sternwheelers At Freedomland

According to Freedomland’s 1960 Complete Official Guide with Maps: “From Chicago, the queen city of the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes Cruise takes you round FREEDOMLAND’s man-made waterways. You sail through all five of the lakes, on one of two 110-foot, 400-passenger sternwheelers. The last sternwheel steamers to be built in the United States, they were specially constructed for FREEDOMLAND by Todd Shipyards. There’ll be music and singing as you sail; each boat carries a band featuring a calliope, and you can join in the community singing with words and music that one of America’s top composers has written for FREEDOMLAND.”

Research has determined that The American and The Canadian sternwheelers were designed by Gene Angel (boat) and Earl Hart (ornamentation). These men had designed and built the sternwheeler used in the MGM musical Showboat and other films.

The sternwheelers were identical and confusion still reigns about the propulsion of these boats. Some stories indicated that the boats did not have engines (this is the accurate version) and were considered floating barges with paddle wheels that provided the propulsion. Other stories indicated falsely that each boat had a Mercedes motor. The long-reported story that both boats at Freedomland operated on a track located under the water actually is a reference to a guide rail in the man-made lake bottom that directed the boats and supported docking.

The Todd Shipyards Corporation’s Hoboken Division in New Jersey delivered the two hulls to the park, where final ornamentation was added to the boats. The ornamentation and outside upper deck were removed years ago from The Showboat.

Total budget for the design, manufacture, transportation and installation of both sternwheelers at Freedomland was about $400,000.

Fate Of The Canadian

Raymond Schmitt was a local business owner who owned the Johnsonville Village land in East Haddam that once had been a thriving mill community. He and his wife planned to convert the property into a tourist attraction. They purchased and moved vintage buildings from throughout New England to Johnsonville. The structures included a Victorian stable and chapel. They purchased and moved The Canadian to the millpond.

A Connecticut newspaper during the mid-1960s reported that the Schmitts bought The American, and this may have been the original source of the error that led to the misidentification of the two Freedomland sternwheelers for all these years. Additional information in the article was accurate—specifically, the boat was towed up the Connecticut River and then carried by truck to the community of Moodus, a village in East Haddam, and placed in the Johnsonville millpond. The boat was situated near the shore for about 30 years.

Another article about Johnsonville Village in the December 30, 1982, issue of the Hartford Courant featured photographs of the boat with the “Canadian” name between the smokestacks as it had appeared at Freedomland. This article, though, did contain some misinformation about the boat—that it was built during 1954 (actually 1959) and that it was purchased during the early 1970s (actually 1966). Due to the lack of maintenance, the boat, according to the article, continued to deteriorate at Johnsonville Village. Another article from the Hartford Courant on September 8, 1983, featured a different photograph of The Canadian. The name of the boat still could be seen between the smokestacks.

Then, it was gone! During February 2005, the boat, reportedly, was moved across the pond to the side with access to the road. The boat was carted away after it was sawed or chopped into pieces.

Remembering The Canadian

While gone, The Canadian is remembered on Riverboat Dave’s Paddlewheel Site. (See the actual page that features The Canadian.) Among the listing of boats is the picture of a model of The Canadian. Accompanying information identifies the boat and mentions that it was located at Freedomland. The listing identifies the owner of the model as Ray Harrington. He references the boat as Eugene, providing more confusion and mystery about the life of The Canadian Freedomland sternwheeler.

"I purchased the Eugene at an auction in Connecticut at a place called Johnsonville,” wrote Ray. “The owner, Ray Schmit[t], died of cancer a couple of years ago and then the whole place went up for auction. Schmit[t] had a lot of money and his goal was to rebuild an old village on his property. And he did. Everything from original houses and buildings that he moved, carriages, furniture, sleds, etc. Everything you could think that would be in a town back in the late 1800's. He also purchased a sternwheeler from what use[d] to be Freedomland, an amusement park in New York back in the 60's. He had the vessel floated up from New York, up the Connecticut River, and then moved over about 4 miles of land. . . "

The listing on this riverboat website is the only known reference that The Canadian may have been renamed Eugene. No evidence has been located that a new name had been assigned to the boat. The mystery continues to surround the removal and fate of The Canadian.

But, no mystery surrounds the fate of The American that recently was damaged and sent to a nearby scrapyard. Unfortunately, it lived a long part of its post-Freedomland life under the wrong name.