An alligator was the mascot of the steamboat Sultana, which caught fire, killing hundreds of Civil War soldiers. A new museum in Marion, Ark., is confident kids will sink their teeth into the story of the beast and one lucky passenger

Alligator curious made for or by soldier William Lugenbeal, plush gators in the museum gift shop

Kids coming to the revamped Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., are sure to be awed by a giant mockup of the doomed steamboat. Beyond that, a lot of stories are geared to get their attention, including the Sultana’s legendary alligator.

One of the most remembered survivors of the April 1865 maritime tragedy was Union Pvt. William Lugenbeal, who fatally injured the Sultana's pet alligator and floated to safety in its sturdy wooden crate.

The museum has two canes from Lugenbeal, one pipe, one napkin ring, and a curio box -- all decorated with the image of an alligator and inscribed to the man who was "saved by a alligator." 

Museum executive director Jeff Kollath purchased a taxidermied alligator, which will be in a crate near the bow of the Sultana mockup. A display case will include the Lugenbeal artifacts.

A small portion of the large mockup of the steamboat (Sultana Disaster Museum)

Workers are rushing to complete exhibits before the Nov. 14 grand opening in Marion, west of Memphis, Tenn.

“I could not put a percentage of how much the final design was with kids in mind. Our museum will have elements that appeal to all ages,” said John Fogleman, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society.

Still, the museum gift shop has many items that will appeal to the younger set, including alligator plush toys.

Gene Salecker, a Sultana author, artifacts collector and a member of the nonprofit that is building the museum, recently drove from Illinois to Marion to reassemble his 14-foot model of the steamboat. He took it apart when the first Sultana museum closed earlier this year in preparation for the new site.

Whereas that model was the centerpiece of the venue’s tiny former location a couple blocks, the star of the new museum – in a former high school gymnasium – will be the large mockup of the Sultana.

“I am thinking that the school groups will find the main exhibit area the most exciting. Actually being able to walk unto the ‘deck’ of the Sultana will be a thrill to them,” Salecker said in an email to the Picket.

Marion – across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tenn. -- is near where the Sultana caught fire and exploded in late April 1865, killing about 1,200 people, including hundreds of Union soldiers who had just been released from Confederate prisons and were heading home.

A small room (left) at the new site represents Cahaba prison. "You can see the crude bunk beds that were built in one section of the prison building," said the Sultana researcher.

The tragedy was largely forgotten because it occurred shortly after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and a hunt ensued for the killers.

With only a few artifacts directly associated with the Sultana, the presentation will need to be heavy on stories, and there is no shortage. Visitors will learn about passengers, rescuers, overcrowding, greed, graft and much more.

“I really liked the fact that they had dozens and dozens of quotes (above) along the walls, quotes from people on board the Sultana as well as quotes from rescuers,” said Salecker.

“They had the entire list of names of all of the people that were on board the Sultana during her April 24-27, 1865, trip, and in one section, they have a panel with small, three-inch tall figures representing all of the 2,124 people that were on board the Sultana.Then, a little ways down, there is another panel but this one has many, many gaps in it. This panel represents only the 960 survivors. The two panels give you a wonderful idea of how costly the disaster was.”

The large Sultana model will feature mockups of two engine boilers, one of which shows damage from the explosion (above). "The sides of the boiler were curled back and the tubes within the boiler were all twisted and torn. It really gives you a good idea of what an exploded boiler looked like," Salecker said of the mockup. 

With them will be the engine from the sidewheel steamboat LeRoy. It sank in the Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle in November 1840. (Photos by Gene Salecker)

At the rear of the Sultana mockup is a mural painted to show the stern. “You are looking out over the stern railing and the sounding yawl (small rowboat used for checking the depth of the river during low water.),” added Salecker.

Actual pieces from the boat – furnace bricks, shaker plates and a few other items – are expected to be displayed in the main deck area, he said. Reunion ribbons, flags, newsletters and other items from the original Sultana Survivors’ Association also will be in the new location.

The museum will also tell the story of a race between the Sultana and two other steamboats in 1863, a couple years before the disaster. They started in New Orleans and the competition ended in Cairo, Ill. While the Sultana did not win, it was believed to be a swift boat if it had a capable captain and crew.

Officials hope the larger venue will boost learning and tourism in the area.

Two coasters in gift ship include alligator themes (Sultana Disaster Museum)

Mary Haizlip, principal architect at Haizlip Studio, which is leading the exhibits effort, said the museum already has made an impact by being a community gathering spot during the latter phases of construction.

“The museum will help bridge tourism between Marion, western Arkansas and Memphis,” she told the Picket. “The story is told through interactive exhibits, immersive experiences and little bit of magic that unfolds to draw visitors in and spark learning and excitement about history.”

Marion is getting the word out about a big four-day celebration around the opening.

Soldier descendants attending their 38^th annual reunion in Marion will wear a yellow ribbon similar to those worn by survivors of the disaster.

Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends member Doug Schneider is producing a medallion showing an historic photograph of the Sultana and the exterior of the new site. 

Cutaway showing main saloon, Texas cabin, engine room and the pilot house (Gene Salecker)

Previous Sultana coverage:

• Documentary, events mark 150th anniversary

• Will victim's journal and Bible become part of collection?

• Descendants drop flowers in memory of the lost
• Model captures every detail of Sultana• Disaster took lives of those who had endured so much

• Siblings recall learning of disaster

Descendants of Sultana disaster victims and survivors were early champions of a large museum. They will be in Arkansas next month to celebrate a day long coming

Descendant Robert Burke of Marion, Ind., places wreath remembering ancestor in Mississippi River in 2015; Doug Schneider of the association has created a medallion for this year's reunion in Marion.

With the grand opening of the reimagined Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., just a few weeks away, organizers credit a meeting nearly 40 years ago for getting the ball rolling for an enduring tribute to victims and survivors of the maritime disaster.

The first gathering of the Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends occurred in Knoxville, Tenn., bringing together researchers Jerry Potter and Gene Salecker.

“Gene and Jerry had been researching the Sultana story for several years separately when they met for the first time at our first formal Sultana reunion in Knoxville in 1988,” said association founder Norman Shaw. “They became friends and started sharing research, resulting in Jerry's book coming out in 1992 followed by Gene's in 1996.”

The little-known story of the steamboat Sultana was finally being told.

Potter, Salecker and retired banker Louis Intres eventually championed a combination of artifacts, memorabilia and stories of those involved in the Sultana to build a first iteration of the museum in 2015, the same year the descendants group last met in Marion. (Interestingly, none neither they nor Shaw are descendants.)

Marion – across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tenn., is near where the Sultana caught fire and exploded in late April 1865, killing about 1,200 people, including hundreds of Union soldiers who had just been released from Confederate prisons and were heading home.

This year's meeting of the descendants group Nov. 12-14 will be a prominent part of the celebration in Marion, which worked for years to raise the millions needed for a larger location a few blocks from the first venue.

Salecker told the Picket no one envisioned a museum during that first meeting of descendants.

A few years later, Intres learned Salecker had been collecting artifacts and memorabilia and had put them on display a few times at the Ohio Civil War Show in Mansfield and at Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends reunions.

“I think after seeing what I was bringing to our reunions for display, and after seeing some of the photos from the Kenosha (Wis.) display, Louis asked me if I would loan him all of my artifacts for a display that he wanted to put up at Arkansas State University, where he was working as an adjunct professor. The display was put up in February 2012,” said Salecker, who lives in the Chicago area.

“In June 2013, Louis, working with the Marion Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Frank Fogleman, arranged for a display of my artifacts and some items from Jerry Potter and a few descendants … in a shopping complex. After that, in consultation with Frank and others in Marion, it was decided to look for an interim museum site, while we all looked for a permanent site for a museum,” Salecker added. (Louis Intres, photo below)

Officials say it’s important that the little-known story of greed, fraud, valor and sacrifice be told in a bigger way than what’s covered in a tiny museum that opened in 2015 and closed this past May.

The Sultana disaster was little known at the time, not helped by the fact that it got lost in headlines about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the end of the Civil War.

John Fogleman, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, which is leading the museum effort, told the Picket the authors and descendants were responsible for conceiving the idea of the museum. Fogleman's ancestors helped rescue those thrown into the river by the catastrophe, and that aspect of the story will be featured in the exhibits.

Officials hope the larger venue – in the town’s old high school gymnasium -- will boost learning and tourism in the area.

Descendants attending this 38^th annual reunion will wear a yellow ribbon similar to those worn by survivors of the disaster. Member Doug Schneider is producing a medallion showing an historic photograph of the Sultana and the exterior of the new site. 

Schneider's great-great grandfather, Peter Rosselot, Company E, 50th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, survived the tragedy. He had been captured at Franklin and imprisoned at Cahaba in Alabama.

Rosselot (left, with wife Louise) wrote about the calamity in a chapter of Chester Berry's famous book about the Sultana. 

"There were seven of our company on the boat, and five of them perished. If it has not been for the grace of God we too would have perished. After I had got down on the lower deck I waited for a favorable opportunity to save myself. After a large number of the men had made their escape or were drowned I watched for a clear space in the river, for I was afraid some one would catch hold of me and I would share the fate of the others. I jumped off into the river, and swam away as fast as I could ..."

Schneider, who lives in Massachusetts, has been on four trips with the association. "Norm has done an amazing job of finding various places to visit that are related to the men who were on the Sultana."

Other meeting locations have included Knoxville, Cincinnati, Vicksburg, Ms., Memphis, Americus, Ga., and Athens, Ala. -- all have ties to POW camps, the boat itself or the disaster.

Shaw said he is hopeful 200 members of the group will come to Marion. He has booked rooms in four hotels. About 125 people had signed up by Oct. 22.

Descendants at their 2015 reunion in Marion and Memphis (Norman Shaw)

Here is the schedule for the descendants association gathering:

Wednesday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day: The city will have a 1 p.m. public ceremony at the museum’s flag plaza (114 Military Road). Sixth-grade students will sing and there will be a few remarks.

Thursday, Nov. 12: An afternoon meet-and-greet of descendants at the Best Western motel in Marion.

Friday, Nov. 13: A 10 a.m. tour of the new museum. John Fogleman and museum executive director Jeff Kollath will provide an introductory presentation.

The association will have a banquet from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at The Crossings Church gym across from the museum. Tacker’s Shake Shack will provide the meal. The program includes recognitions, singing, book giveaways and a candlelight ceremony. Cost is $37.

Speakers include Potter, Salecker (at right, with model of Sultana) and Shaw.

“I expect that I will share how I first came to learn about the Sultana and became captivated by her remarkable story,” Potter said. “On a hot day in July 1978, I took a shortcut through the lobby of the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis and noticed a painting depicting the burning of the Sultana on April 27, 1865. The painting was displayed among several others in an alcove of the bank. That brief encounter sparked what has become nearly five decades of research, preservation and storytelling. My talk will focus on that journey and on the enduring mission of ensuring that the stories of the men aboard the Sultana, so often overlooked by history, are remembered and shared with future generations.”

Salecker will talk about early efforts of displaying the memorabilia and artifacts around the Midwest and finally in Marion. The author and collector said the effort moved from "Are there any interested descendants out there?" to "Look what we have accomplished."

Saturday, Nov. 14: 10 a.m. grand opening of the museum to the public.

In 2015, Norman Shaw (right) and reenactor prepare to place flag in Mississippi River in memory of soldiers

Robert Burke, 82, of Marion, Ind., is among the descendants traveling to Marion next month.

In 2015, Burke dropped a custom wreath and white rose into the Mississippi River in honor of his ancestor, Enoch Nation, 9^th Indiana Cavalry, who was a Cahaba prisoner near Selma, Ala. Many other released prisoners had been at Andersonville (Camp Sumter) in Georgia

“They never found his body,” Burke told the Picket then. “My only hope is he’s in an unknown soldier’s marked grave.”

Shaw recalls stumbling across the Sultana story as founder and later president of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable in 1987. He learned about three local children of Sultana survivors and then about six more over the next few years. “All are gone now, of course.”

He recently sent an email to members of the descendants association, updating them on logistics for the gathering.

“In just 1.5 months, our long, sought-after dream of a new Sultana museum will become a reality,” Shaw wrote. “I'm sure your Sultana ancestors would be proud.”

Remembering the Sultana disaster: This 14-foot model greeted Arkansas museum visitors for years. It was one of two made for a film about Civil War tragedy

The old Sultana museum (Picket photo), Gene Salecker with model and a still from film abouit the disaster

About 25 years ago, an Ohio documentary maker who was passionate about the steamboat Sultana tragedy put his dreams into production, filming scenes in a river, swimming pool and a recreated ship’s cabin, among other locations.

The late Tom Koba’s production apparently never enjoyed widespread distribution, but he did leave behind two models of the Sultana. The actual vessel exploded and caught fire in April 1865, killing about 1,200 people. Hundreds of Federal soldiers, many recently freed from Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and Cahaba, were on their way home.

Sultana author Gene Salecker worked from the remains of those boats to create new models, one of which was the star at the Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., before the museum closed two months ago as a larger, permanent venue is built a few blocks away.

A giant version of the doomed vessel will be the centerpiece of the new museum. “People will be able to actually walk up onto the recreated deck and see our actual 1842 steamboat engine (right) and a display on the fateful boilers, as well as other featured displays,” said Salecker, who has purchased numerous artifacts for the museum over the years.

Museum executive director Jeff Kollath said Salecker’s model, which was disassembled recently, will be placed in the main area, too. Salecker will put it back together in October, a month ahead of the museum’s grand opening.

“People can see pictures or drawings of the Sultana, but can only imagine what it really looked like,” said Norman Shaw, a founder of the Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends. “With Gene's large model, they can examine one up close. Also get an idea (of) how it operated.”

History is fortunate a photograph of the overloaded Sultana, taken shortly before the disaster, survives.

Blue tape in the gym shows shape of new Sultana model (Gene Salecker)

Sultana author Jerry Potter said Salecker’s model “is an incredible tool to give people an understanding of the layout of the Sultana. Gene has done an amazing job of restoring it. Now, it is going to its final home.”

I asked Salecker to talk about the Sultana models and how they have been used. His responses have been edited and ordered for brevity and context.

Q. Did you build the model? If so, when did you build it and why?

I built the existing model during the summers of 2013 and 2014 while I was still teaching and had the summers off. However, the foundation of the model came from someone else.

The 14-foot model (actually, two of them) were the brainchild of Tom Koba, of Berlin Heights, Ohio. Tom was an independent filmmaker who had worked with the state of Ohio on a couple of Civil War documentaries

I met Tom at the Ohio Civil War Show in Mansfield after my 1996 book was published. Tom bought a copy and was instantly hooked on the story. He would come to the show each year and pick my brain, hoping one day to make a documentary on the Sultana.

Scenes from filming in 2000, of survivors and fiery water (Courtesy Gene Salecker)

I believe Tom began his film in about 2000. He lived on a large farm and actually built a full-scale main saloon, boiler and coal bin area, some of the decking, etc. At one point, he rented out a public pool and at night, he put up some fake deck pieces, lit them on fire and had people rushing from the burning "boat" and jumping into the water. He hired professional stunt people to set themselves on fire and jump into the water, and a professional makeup person to put "burns" and "scalds" on many of the people. He also used local re-enactors as some of the ex-POWs.

Tom hired a couple of retired gentlemen to build him the two 14-foot models. One was to be detailed and the paddlewheels could move by radio control. He planned to run this on a river near his farm and take shots of the crowded boat going up the river. The second boat was not as well detailed and was meant to be exploded and burned.

Original Sultana model several years after film production (Gene Salecker)

At one of the Sultana Association reunions, Tom came and showed a few of us the finished "rushes." He was getting ready to edit the scenes when he unexpectedly died in 2007 at age 61.

In about 2012, I got a phone call from (his companion and business partner) asking me if I wanted the two 14-foot models. They had sat on her mother's front lawn, covered by a blue tarp .. . near Lake Erie. I rented a U-Haul truck and went and brought the two models back to my house in River Grove, Ill.

(The Picket contacted the business partner and will update this if she responds to questions about the project.)

In the summer of 2013, I moved the best model into my shed and began stripping off the old paint and mold and preparing it the way the Sultana had actually looked. It took me two summers and a lot of work but I completed the first model and brought it down to Marion for the grand opening of the interim museum in April 2015 (photo above).

Q. What materials are primarily used? How much of the original models were used?

A. I primarily used cedar and balsa wood. I also used chairs, spittoons, door handles, buckets, barrels, etc. from scale dollhouses.

Model that greeted museum visitors for 11 years awaits reassembly in new venue (Gene Salecker)

As for how much of Tom's original models I used, (it was) the hulls (Tom had them painted black and I had to strip, sand and paint them white.) I used the decking. I used all the slats in the railings and the upright railing posts. I used much of the paddlewheel housings but had to cut and redesign them. I used all of the stairs leading into the Texas cabins. I used his stage planks. In other words, to honor Tom, I used as much of the original model as I could but much of it needed a lot of modification. I would say I used about 60% of what was not too damaged by the elements.

Q. How did you/the builder come up with the specs and design?

A. All of the information about the Sultana (size, number of boilers, etc.) came from the January and February 1863 Cincinnati newspapers, which were reporting on the building of the Sultana. In 1979, I was working as a draftsman and drew up blueprints of the boat. No steamboat was built by blueprints so there were no existing prints for the Sultana. When someone wanted a new boat built, he went to the boat builder, gave him the measurements he wanted and etc., and the boat builder went to work. Steamboats were pretty standard.

Click on this 1865 panorama of St. Louise to see Sultana at center-right (credit below)

I used the information on the Sultana for specifics, and for the genera overall design of a steamboat, I referred to “The Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopoedium” by Alan L. Bates, a retired steamboat engineer. Bates wrote his book, which is almost entirely of line drawings of parts of the steamboat, with "a nod to the modeler." When I was finished with my blueprints, I sent them to Alan L. Bates himself to check them over and he returned them with some comments and corrections. Those were what I used and referred to in building the 14-foot model.

(Photo above: Courtesy Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis)

Q. Tell me about the second model you built.

A. I used the best of the two (Koba) models to build the one that was displayed in the Interim museum. A few years later, I used the second model to build an "after the explosion" model which has only been put on display once -- at the 2021 kickoff of the fundraising for the new museum. I had to make an exact duplicate of the first model and then strategically wreck it.

I tried to use as much of Tom's original model in the second one (above, courtesy Gene Salecker), also. However, since I had picked the best pieces from both models when I made the first one, there weren’t much undamaged pieces left. Of course, I used the hull and some of the decking but most of it had to be handmade to an exact match of the first model. That was the hard part -- being exactly like the first model except for the ruptured middle of the boat. The stern, the bow, the paddlewheel boxes, everything had to be exactly the same.

Fortunately, I took hundreds of photos as I worked on the first model so I used those as reference for the second model... and I made sure that I kept my measurements of everything.

(Editor's note: There is no room in the gallery for the  "after the explosion" version, which is in storage in Marion, Kollath told the Picket.)

Q. How has the model added to the story of the Sultana?

A. Melody Walker of the interim Sultana Disaster Museum used to say that the two things everybody photographs when they come to the museum is the many names on the Memorial Wall and the 14-foot steamboat model. People like to look at the model to get a better understanding of what the Sultana looked like. They can see how difficult it would have been for a soldier to leap from the top hurricane deck into the crowded water 25 feet below.

Photograph of the Sultana near Helen, Ark., a day before tragedy on the Mississippi (Library of Congress)

The model has added to the understanding of where the explosion came from (top, back end of the boilers in the center of the boat), and how the blast traveled upward at about a 45-degree angle, tearing everything before it, including the pilothouse. The model adds to the understanding of just what the ex-POWs and the others had to go through to reach the supposed safety of the water.

 As they say, a picture (or in this case, a model) is worth a thousand words. It is a great educational aide in helping to explain the tragedy of the Sultana.

Previous Sultana coverage:

• Documentary, events mark 150th anniversary

• Will victim's journal and Bible become part of collection?

• Descendants drop flowers in memory of the lost
• Model captures every detail of Sultana

• Disaster took lives of those who had endured so much
• Siblings recall learning of disaster

Steamboat Sultana: Stories of heroic rescues lie just beneath the surface in NE Arkansas. The wreckage itself is a good bit deeper, likely under a soybean field

Rick DeSpain's drawing of John Fogleman taking raft to rescue ( www.DeSpainPrints.com)

For more than 200 years, a John Fogleman has lived and worked in a small patch of the Arkansas Delta across from Memphis, Tenn.

One had a farm in Crittenden County when a fire lit the sky a couple miles away on April 27, 1865. The overloaded steamboat Sultana, carrying hundreds of Union soldiers heading home at the end of the Civil War, exploded and caught firing, spilling passengers into the frigid Mississippi River. Many of the soldiers had recently been released from Confederate prisons, including Andersonville in Georgia and Cahaba in Alabama.

According to newspaper accounts and family lore, Fogleman lashed two or three logs together, poled his way through the current and toward survivors. He plucked dozens of people to safety. It’s possible his sons Leroy and Gustavus assisted.

By chance, or perhaps fate, his great-great-grandson, retired Circuit Judge John Fogleman, is currently spearheading the effort to build a permanent museum about the largest U.S. maritime disaster. Officials hope to open the venue in Marion later this year. (A smaller museum operates a few blocks away.)

On a recent visit to Marion, I asked the judge, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, to show me the soybean field where the wreckage of the vessel reportedly is covered. (Picket video, above, of Fogleman discussing site)

We had no luck because Fogleman was unable to contact the property owner in time. Still, we drove to a spot a mile or so away, as close as we could get. The area is fenced. (Note: this is private property and the presumed location is kept guarded.)

Fogleman also took me close to where his ancestors lived and described the rescue effort, which will be a significant part of the museum’s exhibits.

Another great-great grandfather, Franklin Hardin Barton, and several neighbors came to the aid of Yankee troops, who were the enemy just weeks before.

The Memphis Daily Argus and other newspapers provided vivid accounts from survivors and rescuers, some of whom flocked from Memphis.

“Messrs. John Fogleman, Thomas J. Lumbertson, George Malone and John Berry, citizens of Mound City, Arkansas, are entitled to the eternal gratitude of every right-thinking mind,” reported the Daily Argus.

Franklin Barton and LeRoy and Gustavus Fogleman (Courtesy John Fogleman)

“When they saw the burning, floating mass, and heard the cries of the struggling thousands, they made haste to construct rude rafts of logs and put into the stream. With these, they succeeded in saving the lives of nearly a hundred persons. They were unceasing and labored faithfully and courageously as long as there was any possibility of relieving a suffering fellow mortal. Mr. Fogleman's residence was converted into a temporary hospital for the sufferers, and every possible care and attention were bestowed on them by Mr. Fogleman and his family. The number who had been brought in -- rescued from the river -- at 12 o'clock yesterday were 110 enlisted men, ten officers, four ladies and fifteen citizens."

Another account was sent to the Chicago Tribune (right, click to enlarge).

Norman Shaw, a founder of the Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends, recalled visiting the Sultana site in 2015. Shaw has researched rescues involving the men named by the Daily Argus. Sources include Sultana expert and author's Gene Salecker's list of testimonials and a riveting account of the disaster by Union soldier Chester Berry.

"I arrive at a total of 219 rescued through the efforts of men and women from the small community of Mound City,” Shaw wrote in article for association members.

While visitors to the small current museum ask about the wreck and why it has not been raised, it’s important to note the Mississippi has shifted course often over the years. Small tributaries and lakes go away or are formed, and small islands do the same. So no one is 100 percent sure where the remnants of the Sultana lie.

About 1,200 people died in the disaster. The vessel’s boilers are considered to be the main cause of the catastrophe. There are also claims of greed and sabotage, but that's another story.

Jerry Potter, a Memphis attorney and noted expert and author on the Sultana, searched for the wreckage in the early 1980s near a small community of Mound City. He used old maps and eyewitness accounts. (Salvage efforts years before removed portions of the Sultana,)

Potter told the Picket he met with the son of the man who owned the land at the time. Potter showed him a map where he thought the wreckage was located.

“He stated that about 100 yards north of my location he had found pieces of metal. (He) and I searched together, and over the years, we uncovered many pieces of metal which were identified as coming from a 19^th century steamboat.

Author Clive Cussler brought the first magnetometer to the site and got readings on buried metal.

“We had two other magnetometers and got readings of buried metal. The ‘History Detectives’ show on the History Channel brought experts to locate the wreckage, who agreed with my opinion about the location of the wreckage,” said Potter.

“According to eyewitness accounts, the wreckage came to rest at the head of Chicken Island. At that time, Chicken Island was actually an island, with the main channel of the river flowing on the east side and (the) Mound City chute on the west side. The river filled in around the wreckage and closed off the north end of the Mound City chute.”

Potter said they placed steamboat metal parts in a building. The landowner lost possession of the property and when the author approached the new owner he was unable to find the parts, he said. “The owner thought they might have buried the parts while clearing the property before his purchase.”

The wreckage of the side-wheeler is about a mile from the main channel and is too deep to uncover, the author of “The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster” added.

“I believe that the hull's remains would probably be in good condition since they are below the water table ...  I am 90% sure that we located the site of the Sultana. There are no reports of any other steamboat wrecks in the area, and the 1876 map (highlighted above) marks the location. The only way I would be a 100% sure would be to uncover the wreckage, but the costs of such an undertaking would be in the millions.”

Fogleman and I drove by farms and a few homes on the flat land. One stop was the sight of Native American mounds at Mound City (Picket photo, right).

The judge has spoken publicly about the January and February 1863 Federal burnings of Mound City and nearby Hopefield in response to Confederate guerrilla activities and the trial of a man accused of instigating the hanging of an abolitionist.

“This punitive expedition relates to Union efforts to secure Memphis, Tennessee, as a supply and hospital base capable of supporting ongoing operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi,” says the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “It stands as an early example of the shift toward hard war tactics that would increase throughout the remainder of the Civil War.”

So, given the tension between Union forces and civilians in Memphis and Crittenden County, it may seem surprising the latter joined efforts to save Sultana’s victims.

Instinct must have kicked in.

"These men were leading citizens, interconnected by family and business, and most likely close friends," said Shaw. "Each one had supported the Southern cause, but all reacted immediately to save as many lives as possible after the Sultana exploded."

Amid construction of new Sultana Disaster Museum, executive director envisions exhibits that will capture chaos and heroism during the Mississippi River tragedy

A building addition provides an entrance to the main gallery (Sultana Disaster Museum)

Construction in Marion, Ark., of a larger museum commemorating the Sultana maritime disaster at the end of the Civil War is moving full speed ahead, though new exhibits won’t open until April 2026, a year later than first estimated.

Crews are building a more dynamic Sultana Disaster Museum than the current small location a few blocks away. It will be housed in the gymnasium of an old high school, with a couple additions. (A temporary gallery about music in the Arkansas Delta will open in October 2025).

Marion, close to where the side-wheeler Sultana exploded and caught fire in the Mississippi River, will honor soldiers who died in the disaster and residents who helped save others who were plunged into the river in late April 1865.

A Harper's Weekly depiction of the April 1865 disaster in the Mississippi River

About 1,200 passengers and crew perished. Hundreds of Federal soldiers, many recently freed from Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and Cahaba, were on their way home.

Earlier this year, the Sultana Historical Preservation Society brought on Jeff Kollath, former longtime executive director of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, Tenn., as executive director.

Museum officials say the exhibits will build off the full story of the Sultana, with information about the importance of the river, Confederate POW camps, the bribery and corruption that led to the overcrowding of the boat, the explosion and fire, and the creation of the Sultana Survivors Association. The vessel’s boilers are considered to be the main cause of the catastrophe.

The Civil War Picket, which has followed the city’s efforts for more than a decade, recently reached out to Kollath (left) for an update. His e-mailed responses are below.

Q. Please summarize where the project is now. I know the leaky roof needed replacing, the foundation was added for the gym addition and work is ongoing.

A. At present, contractors are bricking the exterior walls of the new addition. They have completed the west side and have moved to the main entrance. Sheetrock has been installed in probably 80-85% of the old building. The crew is doing a wonderful job floating each piece and creating what will be a beautiful surface for paint, murals, large format graphics, etc. What was once a vast, open, and cold space has now tightened up significantly -- even drywall can add intimacy sometimes! The new roof installed on the old building and has nicely cured. 

Q. Are you now expecting completion in late 2025, or have an estimate?

A. Our building will open in late October 2025 with the lobby, gift shop, auditorium and temporary exhibition gallery available for the public to see. Admission will be free, but we will highly encourage donating to help the cause. The main exhibition gallery will open in late April 2026 to coincide with the 161st anniversary of the disaster.

Design for the front of larger museum in Marion (Courtesy Sultana Disaster Museum)

Q. Will the temporary exhibition gallery that opens in October be comprised mostly of what is in the current Sultana museum? 

A. No, the temporary gallery will not be exclusive to the Sultana nor the Civil War. We view this space as a way to highlight compelling regional, national and global arts, histories and cultures. Our location, just outside of Memphis, and our position as the only large arts, culture and humanities organization and space between Helena and Jonesboro provides us with an opportunity to create exhibitions that have wide appeal to a variety of audiences. Our first temporary show will be a collaboration between the Sultana Disaster Museum and Arkansas State University to highlight the impact and significance of music from the Arkansas Delta, from Al Green and Johnnie Taylor to Johnny Cash and Sonny Burgess. That exhibit will open in October 2025. 

Q. You have said the exhibits were to be bid separately and as of earlier this year they had not been designed. Can you please update me on all this? What part does Haizlip Studio (of Memphis) continue to have?

A. We are currently in the exhibition design process with Haizlip and will be selecting an exhibition fabricator within the next 30-45 days. Haizlip is both the architect and exhibition/graphic designer.

Interior of planned exhibit gallery at old gymnasium (Sultana Disaster Museum)

Q. I understand you like to tell stories in a compelling way.  At the Sultana museum, that would include looking at individual soldiers. What does that look like to you?

A. There are more than 2,000 individual stories to be told, and we're not going to be able to tell all of them. Chester Berry's compendium of stories, first published in the 1880s, is always going to be the go-to for that. However, we will always use the stories of individuals to foreground all the important aspects of our narrative, from the story of the Sultana as the "fastest boat on the Mississippi River," all the way through the kindness and care of the Memphis medical community, to what happened to many of the survivors in the decades following the disaster. History from 10,000 feet down is not compelling; history from the bottom up is, and always will be, the most interesting way to tell a story. 

Q. There has been discussion of the big attraction being a mock-up of the forward part of the Sultana, which will include the boilers. Is that still the case?

A. We will likely be budget-limited, but there will be some large-scale representation of the Sultana, the paddlewheel, lower deck, and, yes, the boiler area. (At left, photo of 1891 reunion banner, courtesy of SHPS)

Q. What do you think will be the coolest use of technology in the museum? What will be the top interactive feature?

A. Our biggest challenge is going to be how to highlight the true chaos of the moments following the boiler explosion: the mad dash looking for anything to float on, working together and working independently to survive, and dealing with the temperature and fury of a river above flood stage in the early spring. We have some cool ideas of how to do this so we're excited to see how they come to fruition. As I've been saying lately, we only get one chance to "blow up" the Sultana, so it needs to be impactful and memorable for our guests.

Q. Since you came on board, what has been your prime focus: Construction, future interpretation, marketing – all of that?

A. It has been a little bit of everything, with the focus turning almost exclusively to interpretation, design and writing the exhibitions. I'll be relying on the experts on our board to answer questions and guide us along the process. The construction process is moving along apace, and we're at the point where we need to locate cameras, wireless access points, A/V hookups, etc. That means we're getting down to "IT," which is a good sign. We want our space to be welcoming, clean and intentional, meaning we have answers for why things are the way they are. Thankfully, our contractor and architect are excellent at answering my questions. There are about 2,781 things to consider when building a museum from scratch, and we won't hit all of them, but we're doing a good job so far.

Q. Any recent acquisitions for the artifacts collection, or anticipated? 

A. Nothing of note. We are not actively collecting at the moment, but certainly have hopes that more survivors' families will entrust us with their materials after we open to the public in 2026. 

Q. How is the city of Marion financially and otherwise contributing to the project? What are the townspeople saying?

A. The Marion Advertising & Promotion Commission has been incredibly generous for the last couple of years, providing funding for marketing and operational support for the current museum. That funding is locked in through 2026 and will cover a fair amount in terms of operations even in the new space.

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After years of planning, the site is beginning to shape up. (Sultana Disaster Museum)

Finance update: The current anticipated cost for the endeavor is roughly $7.25 million (including fundraising expenses), said John Fogleman, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society. The exhibits are still being developed but they will cost $1.5 million to $2.5 million exclusive of design costs. “The cost also depends on our ability to raise an additional $1 million for exhibits,” Fogleman told the Picket.

Previous Sultana coverage:

• Executive director hired to lead expanded venue
• Documentary, events mark 150th anniversary

• Will victim's journal and Bible become part of collection?

• Descendants drop flowers in memory of the lost

• Model captures every detail of Sultana
• Disaster took lives of those who had endured so much

• Siblings recall learning of disaster