An old postcard of the Pennesseewassee, showing the tall smokestack.
NORWAY — Around 1890, Edmund Ames built the Pennesseewassee, a side-wheel steamboat. Ames was the captain and piloted the boat for a number of summers on Norway Lake. He carried mail & groceries to the summer cottage residents and took tourists on cruises. The steamer was large enough to carry 100 passengers.
The steamboat heading up the lake. Note the logs in the water, being floated down the lake toward a sawmill.
The boat departed from its dock where Packard Avenue is today and traveled the length of the lake. The Pennessseewassee’s steam engine had a tall smokestack that would not fit under the Crockett Ridge Road Bridge where you pass from the lower lake to the main lake. When carrying unsuspecting passengers, Capt. Ames would steam steadily toward the bridge, where it became obvious the boat wouldn’t fit underneath. At the very last moment, he would pull a wire and the smokestack would fold over so the boat could barely pass under the bridge. Capt. Ames never tired of the joke.
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