ENDANGERED STATUS SOUGHT FOR HISTORIC S. ILLINOIS SHIPYARDS

MOUND CITY, Ill. -- The opening of the Mound City Shipyards in 1858 gave Southern Illinoisans hope that the area would grow into a great metropolis.

Today, the Mound City Shipyards and Marine Ways is one of the best kept secrets of American history. A lot of people know it was there through 1980, but few know how important it was to history.

An area historian hopes to bring the old shipbuilding center back into the historic spotlight. John Watson, a former water and sewage contractor in Mounds, Ill., wants to preserve what is left of the old shipyards.

"It played a big role in the Civil War," said Watson. "At one time it employed as many as 1,500 workers."

Twenty-seven large ships and as many as 6,000 floating structures were built at the shipyards, including the three Civil War gunboats: the USS Cairo, the USS Mound City and the USS Cincinnati.

Watson will be in Springfield, Ill., later this month for the annual meeting of the Illinois Historic Preservation Commission, which will select the 10 most endangered historic sites in the state. Watson wants to see the shipyards on the list because that would make the site eligible for state funding to keep it from being destroyed from lack of maintenance.

He isn't alone.

"The former Marine Ways was a repair and retrofit facility," said Stephen Thompson of the Illinois Preservation Agency. "It's a significant piece of American history."

The Marine Ways continued to build ships and boats until the 1970s, said Thompson. "It was an economic cornerstone in the Mound City area for more than 120 years."

And it was a very significant site during the Civil War, he added.

Thirty years ago, a group had plans for a Civil War park and museum at Mound City, but the plans were abandoned when the old Civil War hospital building was destroyed by fire. Organizers wanted the restoration of the Civil War hospital and replicas of an ironclad gunboat, an old Civil War barracks building and the Mound City Shipyards and Marine Ways.

The three-level hospital had been constructed in the mid-1850s when the Emporium Real Estate and Manufacturing Co. of Cincinnati tried to establish Emporium City as a Southern Illinois metropolis.

Emporium City never became a reality. Hopes for it went down the drain when the land company went bankrupt. The hospital building later served a number of uses, including as a foundry, furniture factory, warehouse and opera house. It was vacant at the time of the fire in 1976.

Not much left

Not much is left at the shipbuilding site either, said Thompson.

Thompson and Julia Evans of the Illinois Preservation Council say the designation would have no effect on the area's present use. "We understand that the area is being leased," said Thompson.

The Mound City Shipyard was founded in 1858 by Robert Calvin. It was leased by the government during the Civil War. Capt. W.L. Hambleton was superintendent of the government's operations at Mound City, but Capt. James Ead, who was building ships at Carondelet near St. Louis, was brought in to help in the building of the three Civil War ironclads.

The government leased the shipyards again in 1962, when it became the home port of the U.S. Navy's Mississippi Squadron. The squadron had 100 gunboats, 22 transports, 32 mortar boats and eight tugboats.

The only indication of the former shipyards' existence is a small sign erected in 1935.

"Not too many people know the shipyards were here," said Watson, who has kept tabs on its history.

Watson's great-great-grandfather, Washington Boyd Watson, worked at the shipyards.

A history of the gunboats

A brief history of the three Civil War gunboats built at the Mound City Shipyards and Marine Ways:

* The USS Cairo was one of a number of ironclad gunboats named in honor of towns along the upper Mississippi and Ohio rivers. These powerful ironclads were formidable vessels, each with 13 big guns.

The USS Cairo was destined to see only limited action. It was commissioned in January 1862 and engaged in battles at Plum Point in May and Memphis in June. But on Dec. 12, 1862, the Cairo was struck by a torpedo and sank in 36 feet of water in the Yazoo River near Vicksburg, Miss., while engaged in battle with a number of Southern gunboats. The Cairo has since been raised and is now on display at a Vicksburg Civil War Park.

* The USS Mound City was engaged in the battle of Island 10 south the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It helped capture the Red Rover, a Confederate ship which was converted for use as a hospital ship.

The Mound City later struck mines, was brought back to Mound City for repair and returned to finish the Civil War. It was dismantled in 1866.

* The USS Cincinnnati was decommissioned in June 1865 and sold the following year. It later sank at moorings in the Cache River.