Once ruled the Mississippi. The William A. Thompson was the largest piece of equipment on the Upper Mississippi in 1937 when it began duty to keep navigation channels nine feet deep. The Army Corps Engineers, which manages the river, replaced the Thompson in 2005 by a less commanding but more efficient dredge.

Blow torches cutting up vessel for scrap

FOUNTAIN CITY, Wis.  – The gargantuan and historic Mississippi River dredge Thompson, once stationed at Fountain City, is being scrapped. In 2012 town boosters in Prairie du Chien, 96 miles downriver, acquired he dredge from the Army Engineers with plans to convert it into a tourist attraction, but a $1 million fund-raising project fell short. The final indignity was a decision to protect the Thompson from a flood by moving it temporarily to a backwater. But when the flood receded the Thompson was landlocked high and dry and immovable. Next step: Sell the huge 267-foot hulk for scrap.

Wheelhouse coming home. The William A. Thompson’s wheelhouse is being detached from the dredge’s roof and will be moved to Fountain City as a museum piece. Fountain City had been the dredge’s home base since it was first floated in 1937.

Winona’s failed opportunity

When the Army Corps decommissioned the Thomson in 2005, there was discussion in Winona about acquiring the vessel as a floating museum of river lore. The plan was to moor the Thompson at in the fleeting harbor near the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, both becoming a centerpiece for a tourism complex. Insufficient enthusiasm doomed the plan.

What’s in a name

William A. Thompson wasan engineer with the Army Corps f Engineers. He  managed improvements on the Mississippi [River in the early 1900s. Thompson’s granddaughter christened the dredge at the Dravo shipyard in Pittsburg in 1937. It was then down the Ohio River and up the Mississippi to Fountain City to begin seven decades of service. Its bailiwick included the St. Croix and Illinois rivers.

A river gargantuan

> 267 feet long, 48 feet wide, 52-foot high, with 9-inch minimum bridge clearance.

> Weight: 1,200 tons.

> Could dredge to a 23 1/2-foot depth and 250 feet wide from one mooring.

> Dredged 1,000 cubic yards per hour.

> Averaged  2 million cubic yards year.