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One of the worst disasters in the history of United States inland navigation occurred at midnight, Friday, July 5, 1918, when the excursion steamboat Columbia hit a submerged stump and sank into the Illinois River with 496 passengers near Wesley City (present-day Creve Coeur). Eighty-seven passengers, mostly women and children, drowned in the submerged wreckage.
This picture is reproduction of a painting (photo?) depicting the Columbia Steamboat docked on the Peoria Riverfront.
