Historic Hood River
Shiny New Barge
Notes
This image shows a shiny new Shaver barge emerging from the Nichols Boatworks. This barge is ST-47, which are 4000 ton grain barge manufactured for Shaver Transportation by Nichols Boatworks in 1995. As of 2019 this barge was still in service. ST-47 was one of the “Big 4” (ST-45 to ST-48) barges designed and built by Nichols Boatworks under Bob Nichols. These may have been the last ships to emerge from the Boatworks. The big green building sat empty for a couple of years until it was removed in the early 2000s. After a lengthy land use process the site was rezoned and repurposed into a hotel, a commercial building, and a “low development” park.
And now for a special treat: In 1995 Bob Nichols commissioned Portland filmmaker Dan Ackerman to make a film about the building and maiden voyage of barge ST-46. I was able to track him down and get his permission to share this film with you. He also wanted to be sure we credit Robert “Bob” Nichols who commissioned the work and was architect on the design and build of the barges.
BethH
I remember watching that little movie years ago. Bob and Dan were HS classmates and both grew up in the Pine Grove area. They were a year behind me
-my brother’s class. Unfortunately Bob has passed – can’t remember what year- but I believe he was shoveling snow and had a heart attack.
Dan had his camera in the perfect spot- pretty amazing to watch!
Arlen
Fond memories of the Works. Amazing movie!!! Thanks for the effort to get permission to share Arthur.
ArthurB
Dan tells me he had to keep cleaning muck off the lens during the time lapse because of the industrial environment. I can only imagine what working in this environment did to your lungs.