The reopening of the riverfront floodgates means steamboats cruising up and down the Mississippi will be able to dock in Cape Girardeau.
There’s been some discoordination this summer about when the American Queen and the Queen of the Mississippi would be able to dock due to high river levels, but Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau office administrator, Betty Seesing Roth says the conditions they're facing have been nothing out of the ordinary.
“We experience this every year,” she says. “All boat dockings are tentative because they will not be able to get here for one reason or another at the last minute.”
At times, they also take boats that had intended to dock elsewhere, but couldn’t due to similar conditions.
“The schedule is as fluid as the river,” says Roth. This situation has fluctuated in the past as well, whether the river was too high or too low.
On Friday, Aug. 2, the Queen of the Mississippi will arrive in Cape Girardeau, and the next day, the American Queen.
There are currently two different companies, the American Steamboat Company and American Cruise Lines, that regularly dock in Cape Girardeau, with a total of five different boats between them.
“Their passengers from around the world will get off and we provide tours to our local attractions. They’re invited to shop our downtown area,” says Roth. “They just get off the boat, and they enjoy Cape.”
This year, she says, boat dockings will last into December as the company experiments with a new boat they will have in the upper Mississippi during the winter.