Mississippi River Adventures tour boat operator David Schaeffer stands near his boat before it was moved this year. (The Vicksburg Post/FILE PHOTO)

[03/21/01] Students at Enterprise Elementary School in Brookhaven will be visiting Vicksburg on their annual school field trip next month, but have written letters regretting loss of one of the city’s attractions.

The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade classes have come to visit Vicksburg for the last four years and found the Mississippi River Adventures tour to be the highlight of their trip, fifth-grade teacher Kim Nelson said.

The river tour, owned by David and Peggy Schaeffer, left City Front in January after renewal of the company’s lease of a city barge was denied. The city cited damage to the barge, causing it to be unsafe, as the reason for the denial.

Peggy Schaeffer said she holds no one at fault for the loss of the business and Warner Byrum, owner of the Battlefield Inn and stockholder in Mississippi River Adventures, blamed a lack of tourism dollars being brought into the city as the main reason the business closed.

Thirty-eight students from Enterprise Elementary wrote letters voicing their opinions and disappointment about the loss of the boat tour and noted that aside from the fun of riding a boat down the Mississippi, an opportunity to learn the complete history of the city and the river will be lost as well.

“The hydro-jet boat ride is what we wanted to ride the whole year, because the man that runs the boat tells a lot about history and I love to hear about history,” wrote Josh Nations, a fifth-grade student at Enterprise. The letters were mailed to The Vicksburg Post.

The students still plan to visit other historical points of interest in the city, such as the Vicksburg National Military Park and museums, but Nelson said the students were initially more interested in bright lights of the casinos until they rode the river adventure boat.

“When the kids first thought of Vicksburg, they thought of the casinos they had seen commercials for,” Nelson said. “When they got there, they were singing all the jingles for the casinos, but after riding the tour boat, it was all they could talk about on the way back.”

The barge once used for the river adventures will be auctioned off to the highest bidder in April and no river tour will be available to Vicksburg’s visitors this year.

“This (the boat ride) was very educational as well as fun,” student Shay Ford wrote. “Now many people will leave there not knowing as much as they would have if you had the boat ride.”

Peggy Schaeffer has said she does not know if her and her husband will resume a boat tour on the river front in the future but are trying to find someone who may want to do so.

Nelson said David Schaeffer, who captained the tours, was not only hospitable to her and her students but was able to give information about the river and the city’s role in the Civil War in such a way that the children were able to “soak it up like sponges.”

“It left a lasting impression on them,” she said. “The whole city is wonderful, but he was the icing on the cake.”

Regardless of the reasons for the tour boat’s closure and the effect it will have on visitors, the students in Enterprise Elementary School’s fifth grade class and their teacher all shared one sentiment.

“We think it is a big loss for Vicksburg,” many wrote.