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Remember When? Lake Queen II roamed the Tennessee River

Chattanooga News-Free Press file photo / Lake Queen II, and its predecessor, Lake Queen I, operated as excursion boats here from around 1940 to the late 1970s. The skipper, who lived to be 100 years old, was Capt. O.B. Gladish, who owned several local marinas and a boathouse between the Market and Walnut Street bridges downtown. This photo was taken in 1953.
Chattanooga News-Free Press file photo / Lake Queen II, and its predecessor, Lake Queen I, operated as excursion boats here from around 1940 to the late 1970s. The skipper, who lived to be 100 years old, was Capt. O.B. Gladish, who owned several local marinas and a boathouse between the Market and Walnut Street bridges downtown. This photo was taken in 1953. Chattanooga News-Free Press file photo / Lake Queen II, and its predecessor, Lake Queen I, operated as excursion boats here from around 1940 to the late 1970s. The skipper, who lived to be 100 years old, was Capt. O.B. Gladish, who owned several local marinas and a boathouse between the Market and Walnut Street bridges downtown. This photo was taken in 1953.

By Mark Kennedy 3 min read


If you were around in the middle of the 20th century, you might have taken a ride on the Lake Queen excursion boat or its successor, the Lake Queen II.

Starting after 1940 with the completion of the Chickamauga Dam, and continuing through at least the late 1970s, the Lake Queen boats would take passengers on a multi-hour river ride from downtown Chattanooga to Chickamauga Lake and back.

(READ MORE: Did you go swimming here in the 1960s?)

The accompanying photo of the Lake Queen II was taken in 1953 by a Chattanooga News-Free Press photographer.