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Tied to a dock on the Cedar River in 1897, the Belle of Austin was promoted as “one of the finest pleasure boats in Southern Minnesota.”

Newly fitted for its fifth season of 6-mile round trips on the Cedar, the steamboat (38 feet long, 12 feet wide) took up to 40 passengers upstream and back from Columbia Park, a peninsula across the river from Oakwood Cemetery.

Tucked between the Cedar River and Wolf Creek, Columbia Park was the “navigation limit of the river.” Both sides of this land remain deep enough for boats. While details on Columbia Park’s location are sparse, it appears to be land owned by the City of Austin upstream from Interstate 90’s bridges.

While it looks like a 3-mile round trip, the Cedar was much different, with islands and channels in what was mostly swampland behind the downtown dam. The Belle’s landing was where North Main ended near today’s pool parking lot entrance.

In the 1890s, the Belle offered an escape from the city. Cost was 20 cents for “grown folks” and 10 cents for children. Rules included no profane language or liquor and no stopping for passengers to get off or on between the landing and Columbia Park.

Heading into its first season, the Belle created much buzz as it was getting prepped and then had a busy season, transporting church groups, service clubs, schools and more. A boiler in the middle required seats to be “cleverly arranged so as to insure maximum loading capacity.”

Josiah Furtney and Benjamin Hilker bought and named the steamboat. “Belle” was used for a beautiful woman and for naming boats. This name also was used locally, including an 1875 contest for picking a woman as the “Belle of Austin” and a “Belle of Austin” flour brand in 1890.

A native of Canada, Furtney worked as a stone mason, tanner of animal hides and building mover. Living along the river near today’s YMCA, Furtney was the Belle’s mainstay as different partners joined him over the years.

In June 1893, Furtney and Hilker invited Austin’s mayor, city councilmen and news editors to try the steamboat on a Wednesday evening, leaving at 7 p.m. A Mower County Transcript reporter wrote of being “delighted and surprised” by his Belle experience.

The Herald noted only some stumps in the water and a sandbar above the cemetery as issues.

“Two or three hundred dollars would clear the river in good shape and then boating up and down the lovely stream with its mossy banks and beautiful scenery would be a great pleasure,” the Herald wrote.

Furtney and Hilker “have been to a large amount of expense and trouble in cleaning out the channel of the river and in cleaning out the underbrush for a pleasure resort” at Columbia Park, the Transcript wrote. There was a drive well for drinking water, tables, seats, swings and more.

On its second trip, however, the Belle broke a rudder and was out of commission for a bit. It was ready, however, for Independence Day, making “hourly excursions” day and evening.

“It was a delightful and restful way of getting away from the heat and noise of the thronged streets,” the Transcript wrote.

That first season also included Austin’s Order of the Eastern Star chapter using the Belle to host a regional gathering at Columbia Park. Spring Valley, Brownsdale, Albert Lea, Waseca and other chapters traveled to Austin by train and were taken to the boat landing.

For 1894, Furtney and new business partner H.A. Anderson officially named the two-acre picnic site Columbia Park after buying and improving it.

George A. Hormel, who founded the Hormel company in 1891 along the Cedar, wrote about enjoying the Belle of Austin when it “chugged up and down the Cedar River, carrying boatloads of merrymakers to strawberry festivals in Columbia Park, where the young people waltzed in the rustic pavilion to the music of Tischy’s orchestra.”

Columbia Park was popular for “roast suckling pig suppers given by the young blades of the town who handsomely entertained their girls at feasts prepared by themselves,” Hormel wrote in his autobiography.

In 1897, Columbia Park’s grounds were “completely overhauled,” including an 1,800-square-foot dance floor, “new buildings, new swings, a fine new boat house (and) a large dining hall,” the Herald wrote.

The Belle operated for nearly a decade, possibly stopping due to a rumor of rattlesnakes overtaking Columbia Park.

“There might have been a few snakes, probably not rattlers, but the damage was done,” wrote Herald columnist “Old Timer” in his 1949 “Down Memory Lane” column. “In a few years, the brush reclaimed the park, and no trace of it remains today.”

“Many Austin residents still remember with wistful pleasure the leisurely cruises on the Belle of Austin,” he wrote. “As the boat plowed serenely along, it was possible to look over the side and watch the sunfish, perch and minnows, occasionally larger fish, as they swam in and out of the waving underwater vegetation through water that was crystal clear.”