This picture was recently posted on the Facebook group “Cape Rewound” and it’s too good to not pass along.
Presented as being from the June 14, 1959 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it shows a barge load of St. Louis assembled Chevrolets on the riverfront being shipped to parts south, primarily Memphis and New Orleans. The area below the cars and pickups contains corn. It is estimated GM shipped approximately 20,000 vehicles via barge to areas further down the Mississippi River. (Whether that was for the model year or over a broader amount of time is unstated.)
My father grew up along the Mississippi River many miles south near Cape Girardeau (as did I), and this picture lends itself to a story he used to tell: He stated a barge loaded with cars hit a pier of the railroad bridge that crossed the river at Thebes, Illinois, and sank. The year is unknown.
Here’s more information about the railroad bridge in Thebes.
Wow ;
They sure are packed in like sardines .
-Nate
Too close for comfort if you ask me, unless they are users. The dulled paint makes them appear to be at least a few years old, but that would be an unusual gathering unless it’s a fleet order heading out to a single destination. Doubt taxi fleets would order two tone cars either. Conjecture, the mother of discussion.
I get the impression they are new. The front window stickers are all in the same descending order.
Was there a Chevrolet plant near the Mississippi, Ohio, or Missouri Rivers and barged down their product to South America or Caribbean islands?
The GM Fairfax plant is in Kansas City, right on the Missouri River. Barges often reached KC, but I don’t know if they were loaded directly from Fairfax.
IIRC, some cars were shipped new with a waxy coating. That could be the case here. But boy, I can’t imagine them not being dinged up when they arrived!
GM had a large Chevy plant in north St. Louis.
Right next door was the Corvette plant.
It’s funny, I was just thinking yesterday about all the 50s American cars in Cuba, and that some of them might have gone down the Mississippi. Cars being shipped down the river was something that hadn’t occurred to me before, and here today I have proof that this did happen (even though these 59s wouldn’t have gone on to Cuba)
I would imagine most cars to New Orleans would go via rail.
Maybe Cuba is the answer. I do see some delivery trucks on the back of the barge making the shipment more general purpose.
The mouth of the Mississippi to Havana would be a two to three day cruise depending on weather.
Interesting group of 1959 Chevrolets. One would think that, given the date, these would all be brand-new cars, but the paint seems rather dull. Maybe that’s due to some sort of shipment coating to preserve the paint.
They all seem to be base, low-trim, pillared sedans (although there’s a ‘flying wing’ hardtop in the second row).
Great photo, never saw cars on a barg. Uncovered! I want the brown two door, a couple rows back.
I saw that dull finish, too. Is it possibly Cosmoline? This is a rust preventative that was used to coat cars being shipped overseas. Tote that barge. Lift that Bale (or Chevy). Get a little drunk and you land in jail. Paul? Please look carefully. Did any of these show up in Salzberg – or were you not born then? Great photo. Dinah, hearken! These cars are not destined to see the U.S.A.
GM had a large Chevy plant in north St. Louis.
Right next door was the Corvette plant.
To bad there wasn’t a rear shot. All those cats eye taillights starring back.
The white over green one in the back looks kinda precarious.
There’s a white one apparently waiting to be loaded. I’d suppose the white over green is not ready yet for sailing.
Anyone else notice that the car in the front left has wipers that overlap, while most of the others do not? How…?
You are right. I don’t have an answer for that, unless there wasn’t an across the board standard or several purveyors would occasionally deliver different spec products.
I wonder what proportion of new cars were shipped by water in the late 1950s? Logistically, it’s somewhat limited because there’d need to be port facilities at both the plant and the destination… so St. Louis to Memphis/New Orleans would certainly work, as would the Great Lakes, but not too many other locations.
Looks like there’s a good inch or two of room between those two rows of cars. Unloading the barge must’ve been fun.
It is a very interesting photo. The windshield stickers, front seat covers, and missing hub cap/wheel covers all confirm they were new cars. I think the dull finish was a heavy coat of dust, as you can see the hand prints on the bumper of the front car. I wonder if they were tied down as there is nothing obvious to see. Perhaps that is not necessary on the Mississippi. I see one Impala Sport Coupe and one Sport Sedan, two panel trucks and two pickups, no convertible or wagons, and the rest were 2 and 4 door sedans.
For 1959, the colors don’t seem very colorful. We can be sure that Stephen Pellegrino’s coral 59 Chevy is not on this barge.
New car transport is an interesting subject. Few things are as unwieldy to transport as new cars.
Moving a body is worse 🙂
The archive of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch through a Newspapers.com subdomain lacks any issues between June 9 and June 21 in 1959, but it seems highly unlikely a photographer for a newspaper of that time would shoot color film for publication.
My thoughts also. The picture made me wonder if it had been colorized at some point.
Oddly enough, I think that is an original color photo. The original is posted on the website of the State Historical Society of Missouri – here’s the direct link (which is enlargeable to a very big size):
https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/imc/id/44753/rec/7115
Looks like the photographer (Arthur Witman) was a prolific St. Louis Post Dispatch photographer for several decades. In the Historical Society collections are several color photos from around the same time at the St. Louis riverfront.
Thanks for the update!
You can see the plastic on the seats for shipping! Thank you for finding this. It also sound like what you found (your comment below) is almost verbatim of the description I found for this picture.
GM had a large Chevy plant in north St. Louis.
Right next door was the Corvette plant.
I just checked and this photo is actually in the newspapers.com archive, though it’s filed under June 9. The photo is on p.3 of a “Sunday Pictures” supplement titled “The River – Again a Vital Factor in St. Louis’ Destiny” – most of the photos were taken by Mr. Witman. Here is the direct link to the page (newspapers.com subscription required):
http://www.newspapers.com/image/140570319
The photo’s caption reads as:
“St. Louis-assembled automobiles and trucks are loaded on a barge for shipment to Memphis and New Orleans. The vehicles are secured on top of barge, which is filled with corn. In 1957, about 20,000 automobiles moved out of St. Louis on barges.”
June 14, 1959 was a Sunday.
The magazine style features section of the Post Dispatch almost always had a color photo on the cover.
That would be the only color photo for the week.
What stuck me is almost all these cars are low priced 2 or 4 door sedans. There is a story here untold.