W.P. Snyder

Marietta, Oh

Lepi Enterprises were hired by the Ohio Historical Society to reconstruct the paddle wheel on the W. P. Snyder, Jr.

W. P. Snyder, Jr. is a sternwheel, steam driven, towboat that was originally built as the Carnegie Steel Company towboat W. H. Clingerman in 1918 by Rees & Sons Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1938, she was renamed J. L. Perry, and in 1945 A-1. In August 1945, she was sold to Crucible Steel Company of Pittsburgh, and renamed the W. P. Snyder, Jr. in September 1945.

She was a sister vessel of W. H. Colvin, Jr., and she towed coal on the Monongahela River until being laid up on 23 September 1953, at Crucible, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1955, the boat was given to the Ohio Historical Society for exhibit at the Ohio River Museum in Marietta, Ohio. W. P. Snyder, Jr. was the last steamboat locking through Lock 1, on the Muskingum River, before that lock was removed. She arrived in Marietta, Ohio, with Captain Fred Way Jr. as master on 16 September 1955.

As one of the first steel hull towboats constructed, she was fitted with the prominent anti-hogging struts and cables necessary on wooden hulled stern wheelers. At the time it wasn't known if they would be needed with the steel hull construction.

W. P. Snyder, Jr. has been permanently moored on the Muskingum River in Marietta, Ohio, at the Ohio River Museum. Visitors to the museum receive a guided tour of W. P. Snyder, Jr.

She is "the only intact, steam-driven sternwheel towboat still on the nation's river system", but "is in danger of sinking". On 21 November 2009, W.P. Snyder, Jr. was towed from Marietta to South Point, Ohio to have her hull replaced. W. P. Snyder, Jr. made her way home starting 15 September 2010 and arrived back in the Muskingum River at Marietta on 17 September 2010.