The retired S.S. Nenana rests along the banks of the Tanana River near Nenana, Alaska.
According to Patricia Schmidt, President of the Friends of S.S. Nenana, this clip shows the sternwheeler being moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1957. In these scenes, the stack has been removed and is mounted on the top deck so that the boat could pass under the Alaska Railroad bridge (today known as the Mears Memorial Bridge) spanning the Tanana River. The S.S. Nenana was built in 1932 and went into service in 1933. It was actually prefabricated in Seattle and assembled in Nenana. The pieces were shipped up on steamers, and then came up by railroad the rest of the way. The boat was in service until 1954. Howard Adams served as the last captain, retiring the S.S. Nenana from passenger service in 1949 and then as a cargo steamer in 1954.
The sternwheeler now resides as a National Register of Historic Places and a National Historic Landmark located at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. It is the only surviving large wooden hull sternwheeler in the United States. Per the National Park Service, the S.S. Nenana once plied Alaska's Yukon, Nenana, and Tanana Rivers and is one of the few remaining original steamboats that represents a period when rivers were used as major transportation routes (Color/Silent/16mm film).
This is a clip from AAF-20642 of the Bovee Historical Film Collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. Your donation in any amount will help us continue important preservation work. Please visit the “About” section of our KZfaq channel to learn how you can help today. Thank you! For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.