Smile everyone! The American Empress’ pedal boat is back on the river
Kirk Williamson
Imagine you are facing a bus full of people, all wearing masks. You wear one too, of course.
They were tested for Covid-19 upon arrival. You met the bus driver and you helped the first 45 guests on the American Empress’ cruise ship board the bus.
You take a deep breath. First bus leaves at 9 a.m.
“Good morning, my name is Kirk and I will be your guide this morning. I am a recovering broadcaster who has failed to retire … twice. We are in Richland, Washington, one of five cities that we call the Tri-Cities of Washington. “
I wait for people to do the math and then explain.
On June 14, the American Queen Steamboat Company resumed cruises on the Columbia and Snake River systems aboard their American pedal boat Empress. The boat stops at the Richland cruise dock, where buses meet cruise ships interested in exploring the community.
This is where local “hop-on, hop-off” guides come into play.
We run a bus tour that takes about an hour and 15 minutes, with three stops along the way: the Reach Museum, Sacajawea State Park, and the Parkway shopping district in Richland.
As of this writing, the Franklin County Historical Museum is still closed due to the pandemic, so we don’t stop there.
We’ll advise you along with the Franklin County Courthouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Three specially marked buses run with Empress.
They all follow the same route every half an hour, so that guests can get off at the reach, learn a thing or two from the exhibits and then get on the next or the next bus. Each bus has its own guide who makes two complete tours so that all guests can hear the full commentary.
The guides coordinate their material to ensure that every section of the tour is fresh and interesting, even if the guest changes bus and gets a new guide.
Would you like to know who founded the first aircraft factory west of the Mississippi? We’ll tell you. (Hint: It wasn’t Bill Boeing.)
How big is the cut glass dome of the Franklin County Courthouse? Got that covered.
What about the mostly similar houses at the intersection of South Fourth Avenue and West A Street in Pasco? And what is a “range” anyway?
Where did Richland and Pasco get their names from? What does “Kennewick” mean?
All of this and much more is shared with around 200 guests who travel to the Tri-Cities with American Empress four times a month. Guests come from all over the world, but most are from Texas, California, the upper Midwest, and New England.
A film team from the Japanese NHK network toured in 2015.
The American Empress is the largest cruise ship on the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
After an overnight stay in Spokane or Portland, guests board in Clarkston or Vancouver, Washington.
Ports of call are Astoria, Stevenson, The Dalles and the Tri-Cities.
Personally, my wife Gloria and I really enjoyed our cruise on the Kaiserin. We grew up in Goldendale and thought we knew the Columbia River pretty well. But any boater will tell you that you don’t really know a river until you are on the water.
We made our two rounds and welcomed almost all 200 guests on board. One final announcement remains to be made. “Enjoy the rest of your cruise. Remember that all time on board is 4:30 PM. Empress sails at 5 p.m. “
Solution key
Curious about the answers to the Tri-City quiz questions asked above? Williamson provided the answers:
First aircraft factory: Charles Zornes, 1908-12, in what is now Big Pasco
Franklin County Courthouse Dome: 36 feet diameter, 20 feet high. Artwork around the base depicts cities of Franklin County.
Northern Pacific Executive Houses, also known as the “Red Row” because NP uses the same color as its galleys, red with a green trim.
Richland is named after the state legislature Nelson Rich, a land developer and friend of Howard Amon.
The name “Pasco”: A railway engineer suggested the name because of his job in Peru, Cerro de Pasco.
Kennewick means “winter paradise; Winter harbor; grassy place; Grass slope ”depending on the dialect of Sahaptin. The mild weather made it a wintry hangout for tribes.
Kirk Williamson of Kennewick writes regularly about the Columbia Basin Badger Club for the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.