NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The General Jackson, the four-deck paddlewheel showboat that has carried dinner-and-show crowds along the Cumberland River in Nashville since 1985, is being retired. Opry Entertainment Group said the decision came after a lengthy review turned up maintenance problems that have kept disrupting the boat’s schedule.
The boat is not done yet. The company said every date now posted on its public cruise calendar is still expected to go out, and the vessel will host one more holiday season, with Nashville Christmas and Showboat Holiday Spectacular cruises on sale now. Its final trip is set for Dec. 15.
At 300 feet long with room for 1,000 passengers, the General Jackson ranks among the largest showboats ever built. It is the only paddlewheel showboat in Tennessee and one of the few paddlewheel boats still running anywhere in the country.
Opryland first announced the project in 1983 and paid $10 million for the boat, which Jeffboat built in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Its launch came on April 20, 1985, on the Ohio, and it reached Nashville that June 23, when thousands of people lined Riverfront Park downtown to greet it. A christening followed on July 2.
The name reaches back further still. An earlier steamboat called the General Jackson, honoring President Andrew Jackson, began working the Cumberland in 1817. The modern version paired a river trip with a meal and live entertainment staged in a two-story Victorian Theater, and it kept sailing as part of the Opryland complex long after the neighboring Opryland theme park shut down.
Opry Entertainment Group said it will keep offering attractions and live shows across its other Nashville properties that lean on the city’s music scene.
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