The first-ever riverboat casino to roam the rivers of the United States has resurfaced after sinking just a year ago thanks to falling water levels.
The Diamond Lady, which first set sail with her sister boat The Emerald Lady in 1991, was covered in dirt and mud when it resurfaced.
Rich Westfall, the marketing director for the company that moved boats from Iowa to Mississippi 30 years ago, said, “It made my heart sink. I didn’t really know what happened to it.’
In 2008 the Diamond Lady was stored in Lake McKellar off the river and then sank just last year due to a freeze.
The boat became visible again this year due to historically low water levels on the Mississippi River.
The very first riverboat casino to roam the rivers of the United States has resurfaced after sinking just a year ago
The Diamond Lady (pictured left in 1992) was uncovered when the Mississippi River’s waters receded sharply of late
The riverboat, which first set sail with its sister boat The Emerald Lady in 1991, was rediscovered covered in dirt and mud
In photos, the Diamond Lady can be seen somewhat intact, although her funnels have been dented and the entire boat has become dirty, although you can still see her name on the hull.
Westfall told NOLA.com that in its original form, the Diamond Lady was “such a beautifully built riverboat, sturdy and fast.”
The boats were built in Iowa in 1990 by Bernie Goldstein, a man known as the “father of riverboat gambling.” They were designed to resemble the boats that sailed the river in the late 1800s.
Westfall noted that the boat cutting was a huge event attended by Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna White.
The Diamond Lady, like the Emerald Lady, moved south in 1992 after Iowa law restricted casino space.
Until 2008, the Diamond Lady had been stored off the river in Lake McKellar and only sank last year due to a freeze
The boat became visible again this year due to historically low water levels on the Mississippi River
In photos, the Diamond Lady can be seen somewhat intact, although her funnels have been dented and the entire boat has become dirty, although you can still see her name on the hull
The boats were built in Iowa in 1990 by Bernie Goldstein, a man known as the “father of riverboat gambling.” They were designed to resemble the boats that sailed the river in the late 1800s
Both were filled with every slot machine and table game that the state of Mississippi would allow.
In 1999, the Diamond Lady was decommissioned and replaced by even larger river boats.
By 2016, the boat was mostly used as a tour boat, renamed The Belle of Cincinnati, and mostly moved around Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
Westfall remarked, “It was built to last and it was a beautiful boat.”
Water levels are falling all over the world. In China, falling water levels have uncovered a sunken island and a trio of Buddhist statues on it.
Weeks of searing drought around the world in August caused water levels in rivers and lakes to drop, exposing long-submerged ships, historic sites and ancient statues.
The worst drought in Europe in about 500 years has uncovered so-called “Hunger Stones”, German warships sunk in World War II, and a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the “Spanish Stonehenge”.
In China, falling water levels have uncovered a sunken island and a trio of Buddhist statues on it believed to be 600 years old, while in the US a drought-stricken lake revealed the bodies of five people believed to be dead them from the mafia.
SERBIA: The wreck of a German warship sunk during World War II has emerged August 18 in the Danube River in Prahovo, Serbia, amid plunging water levels
CHINA: A once-submerged Buddhist statue stands on the reef of Foyeliang Island in the Yangtze River, which emerged after water levels fell due to a regional drought in Chongqing on August 20
Along the Elbe, which flows from the Czech Republic to Germany, the drought has uncovered the ominously named “Hungersteine” with the inscription “If you see me, then cry”.
SPAIN: The dolmen of Guadalperal, sometimes known as ‘the Spanish Stonehenge,’ can be seen above the water level of the Valdecanas reservoir, which is 27 percent full, in Caceres province on July 28
ITALY: The drop in water levels in the Tiber in Rome has also uncovered the remains of Nero’s ancient bridge (pictured June 24). The bridge was built under Emperor Nero in the first century so that he could view his possessions on the right bank of the river, including his mother Agrippina’s villa