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

The current Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., will close May 16; a larger, more dynamic venue at old high school is expected to open in November

The Sultana Disaster Museum during a visit in late January (Civil War Picket photo)

A small Arkansas museum that tells the story of the steamboat Sultana disaster near the end of the Civil War will close after May 16 as a larger venue is completed a few blocks away -- the culmination of a long journey for the community.

The Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion made the announcement Thursday morning on social media.

“After years of welcoming visitors to 104 Washington St. on the Marion Courthouse Square, the current Sultana Disaster Museum will officially close its doors on May 16 as we begin the big move into our new museum home opening in November!," the post said.

“This move marks an important new chapter in preserving and sharing the story of the Sultana and the lives forever impacted by the disaster. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has visited, supported, donated, volunteered and helped keep this history alive through the years.”

John Fogleman, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, told the Picket officials anticipate opening the new museum with several days of activities beginning on Veterans Day (Nov. 11) and culminating with a grand opening on Saturday, Nov. 14.

Gene Salecker made this model several years ago (Picket photo)

The new venue will be in a former high school gymnasium-auditorium that was built near the end of the Great Depression.

Officials originally hoped the new site would open in April 2025, in conjunction with the 160^th anniversary of the maritime tragedy. But there have been delays and officials with the Sultana Historical Preservation Society had the continuous work of raising funds.

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. Among those residents were ancestors of Fogleman.

Marion is across the river from Memphis, Tenn.

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 when fire broke out following a boiler explosion. The tragedy has been remembered at the museum and in books by Gene Salecker, Jerry Potter and others. (Picket photo, left)

Remaining days and times for visitors to visit the current museum -- which opened in April 2015 -- are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 7-9 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 14-16.

Now the focus of the project will be looking forward.

"We can’t wait to welcome you into the new space this fall with expanded exhibits, new experiences and even more opportunities to honor and remember this important piece of history," the museum said.

Officials have been largely mum about specific exhibits, although the Picket got a rough idea during a visit to Marion in January. A large mockup of the Sultana will be the focal point.

The idea is to provide a more high-tech, interactive presentation than the old site. That will be especially important since very few surviving items from the vessel were located.

John Fogleman of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society shows mockup in gym (Picket photo)

The new venue will feature the main items in the former gymnasium. There are adjoining rooms for special exhibits and community meetings and events. Officials hope to draw on area schools for field trips.

Museum officials say the exhibits will build off the full story of the Sultana with information about the importance of the river, the Confederate prisoner of war camps at Cahaba and Andersonville, the bribery and corruption that led to the overcrowding of the side-wheel steamboat, the explosion and fire, and the creation of the Sultana Survivors Association.

Salecker, a Sultana collector, author and historian, has purchased many of the artifacts housed in the current museum.

The rooms include a 14-foot model of the Sultana, photographs of survivors and victims, reunion items and a few pieces believed to belong to the steamboat. (Not much survived, and the wreck is said to lie below a bean field east of Marion.)

John Fogleman shows board at new venue detailing donors and sponsors (Picket photo)

"As for the collection, I know that everything will be going over to the new museum but I do not know how much will actually be put on display," Salecker said in an email Thursday. "We have a lot of reunion and GAR items connected with survivors, but we only have limited space for the display of those items. I would hope that we will be rotating items from time-to-time to keep our displays fresh."

Salecker recalls the ceremony when the interim museum opened.

"We had a slight, drizzly rain that day during outside ceremonies. Perhaps the rain was appropriate since we were commemorating a disaster. The Heavens were crying for the 1,164 people that died on the Sultana."

Norman Shaw, a founder of the Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends, recalled the group's meeting in 2015 in Marion to mark the museum's opening. The weekend included descendants dropping roses into the Mississippi River to remember the dead and survivors.

"Even though in a temporary space, we hoped the new museum was only the initial step toward an eventual permanent museum," Shaw said. "Everyone involved worked hard and diligently in raising the $10 million dollars needed to build the new museum, followed by the many hours it took to plan and to oversee the building process."

Gene Salecker and his father Roy, who passed away in early 2025 (Special to the Picket)

Shaw said the survivors of the incident were committed to have the story told for generations.

"They would be most pleased if they could be present to see the doors open for the new Sultana Disaster Museum, but, no doubt, will be with us in spirit."

Potter said his memories of the small museum center around people who have come from all over the world to learn about the overlooked moment in U.S. history.

"I can still recall how many of them stood in amazement as this tragic chapter of American history was unfolded before them. Most said it was incredible -- almost unbelievable -- that they had never heard the story before. Being able to meet such people, to tell the story, and to witness their reactions is what I remember most," he wrote in an email. "This small museum has been the avenue through which the memories of those aboard the Sultana have been kept alive."

Sultana Disaster Museum picks director to lead an expanded venue that will add 'wow factor' to story of 1865 steamboat explosion on the Mississippi

The longtime executive director of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis is leaving to oversee the expansion of a museum in Marion, Ark., dedicated to the story of the Sultana maritime disaster that occurred near the end of the Civil War.

The Sultana Historical Preservation Society announced Thursday the hiring of Jeff Kollath, who had been at the Stax museum for nine years and previously worked at historical, veterans and humanities sites in his native Wisconsin.

Kollath (left), who is in his mid-40s, officially starts work as executive director at the Sultana Disaster Museum on July 1, a day after he leaves his current job.

An enticement was an opportunity to build something fresh. Kollath will be deeply involved in devising exhibits for the new location of the Sultana museum.

"As a museum professional, one of my greatest joys has been uncovering, interpreting and telling the stories of everyday people and their extraordinary lives,” Kollath said in a news release. “There are thousands of stories to be told in this new museum. The Sultana disaster is something that still reverberates generations later, and I look forward to working with the board and others in making this important story come alive in our museum for guests of all ages."

The society touted Kollath’s experience in grant writing, budget development, facilities management, public speaking and exhibit development and design. The Memphis museum where he has worked provides a deep look at Stax records, which was instrumental in the development of soul music.

“Jeff expressed to the Board of Directors his passion for making history come alive through high quality exhibitions, immersive educational experiences, and free, accessible programming, and we could not be more excited,” the Sultana board said. Marion is across the Mississippi River from Memphis. 

The society earlier this year awarded a construction contract for a larger, more dynamic museum than the current small one a few blocks away. The venue will be housed in the gymnasium of an old high school, with a couple additions.

Museum acquired this Grand Army of the Republic item remembering brothers who died on boat (SPHS)

Marion, close to where the side-wheeler Sultana exploded and caught fire in the Mississippi River, broke ground in 2022 for the venue, which will honor soldiers who died in the disaster and local residents who helped save others who were plunged into the river in late April 1865. 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.

John Fogleman, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, told the Picket in an email Thursday, "Especially valuable is Jeff's ability to tell compelling stories in a compelling way. Our museum is all about telling the story of the individual soldiers and that is one of Jeff's strengths."

Kollath has been in the museum business for 20 years and has experience in telling the stories of soldiers through his work at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

Pat Mitchell Worley, CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, which overseas the Stax museum, said the museum professional is “a lover of great stories at heart, and Stax and the Sultana, the greatest maritime disaster in America, are both that. He’s getting the chance to create a museum from the ground up, and draw on his passion for research and storytelling with this new opportunity."

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

Worley said Kollath oversaw a major renovation of the Memphis museum last year for its 20^th anniversary, created a program offering free field trips for all Title One schools in Tennessee and “has been a tireless supporter of free educational programming, curating more than just exhibits, but also having conversations surrounding the story of Stax, how history shaped it then, and continues to do so today.”

Most recently, Kollah was instrumental with the research required to tell the Stax story as part of a recently released HBO docuseries. 

Gene Salecker, Sultana author, collector and museum supporter, previously said he believes the big attraction at the new museum will be a mock-up of the forward part of the Sultana, which will include the steamboat’s boilers.

“Since the boilers were the main cause of the destruction of the Sultana, we are hoping to have a display on how the boilers worked and what went wrong,” he said, describing the overall museum experience as immersive. “We have tons of information and a great number of artifacts to put into each display.”

Museum officials say the exhibits will build off the full story of the Sultana with information about the importance of the river, the Confederate prisoner of war camps at Cahaba and Andersonville, the bribery and corruption that led to the overcrowding of the boat, the explosion and fire, and the creation of the Sultana Survivors Association. (At left, photo of 1891 reunion banner, courtesy of SHPS)

Fogleman said construction at the gymnasium-auditorium has slowed somewhat after the discovery of issues related to water leaks in the roof and elsewhere.

"Before interior work can continue a new roof will be required. Some of this was anticipated but some was not. Since federal grants are involved, it slows the process."

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