Nenana (steamer)
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (September 2011) |
Pioneer Park, Fairbanks , 2011
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History | |
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United States | |
Builder | Berg Shipbuilding Company |
Launched | 1933 |
Out of service | 1957 |
Status | Museum ship since 1965 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 1,000 gross register tons (GRT) |
Length | 237 ft (72 m) LOA |
Beam | 42 ft (13 m) |
Propulsion | Sternwheeler |
Nenana | |
Alaska Heritage Resources Survey
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Location | Pioneer Park, Fairbanks, Alaska |
Coordinates | 64°50′19″N 147°46′20″W / 64.8386°N 147.77236°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1933 |
Architect | Seattle Shipbuilding Company |
NRHP reference No. | 72001581[1] |
AHRS No. | FAI-005 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | 27 June 1972 |
Designated NHL | 5 May 1989[2] |
SS Nenana is a five-deck (main or cargo, saloon, boat or hurricane, Texas, and pilothouse), western river, sternwheel paddleship. Two-hundred and thirty-seven feet in overall length, with a 42-foot beam, she was rated at 1,000 gross tons register. Nenana was built at
Fully laden, she drew three feet, six inches of water. World War II brought a military buildup in Alaska and kept Nenana busy. She supplied Galena Air Base from which fighter aircraft were supplied to the Soviet Union as well as transporting supplies to a number of military establishments in the advance defense system in Alaska. After the war ended, the decline in passenger revenues that had been arrested by the war continued. Alaska Railroad suspended all river passenger services after the 1949 season. At the close of the 1952 navigation season, Nenana was reconditioned at Whitehorse at a cost of $164,409.20. She only made one more trip north for the Alaska Railroad before being laid up until a newly formed company, Yutana Barge Lines, leased the entire Alaska Railroad fleet in 1954. Yutana Barge Lines operated Nenana to haul freight on rivers for one season but discontinued her lease at that time as unprofitable.
The General Services Administration called for bids on Nenana on December 10, 1955. All bids were rejected as too low until a group with associations to the Chamber of Commerce formed to bring Nenana to Fairbanks. This group, Greater Fairbanks Opportunities, Inc., purchased the steamboat, steamed her up the Tanana and Chena rivers to Fairbanks and opened her as a museum ship in 1957. For a time during a severe shortage of rooms, Nenana also operated as a hotel.
Weather, neglect, and souvenir hunters damaged Nenana at her berth on the river, and to protect, preserve, and interpret her the vessel was moved to a permanent protected dry berth in 1965. Nenana became the centerpiece of "
See also
- Steamboats of the Yukon River
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Alaska
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b "Nenana (River Steamboat)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
- ^
Foster, Kevin J.; Hanable, William S. (July 29, 1988). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Nenana" (pdf). National Park Service. Retrieved September 6, 2012. and
"Accompanying 5 photos, exterior and interior, from 1988 and c.1945" (pdf). National Park Service. Retrieved September 6, 2012.