Missouri's U.S. senators are renewing efforts to get the legendary riverboat the Delta Queen cruising again on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Legislation filed by Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt would reinstate an exemption for the Delta Queen to a federal law that prohibits overnight excursions on wooden vessels.
The law was passed in 1966, but the Delta Queen was granted an exemption until 2008. It has been docked since then.
The 285-foot-long, 88-cabin vessel, immortalized in poems and songs, is in dry dock in Houma, Louisiana. Last year, the company opened a restaurant and gift shop in Kimmswick, Missouri, and plans to move the riverboat to the Missouri site if cruising is allowed.
