Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat

The Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat was a riverboat located in the Liberty Square section of the Magic Kingdom. The riverboat was named after Park Construction Administrator Joe Fowler, a former US Navy rear admiral who was in charge of the construction of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
==History==
The Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat was named for a retired Naval Admiral who played an important part in the building of the Walt Disney World Resort. Admiral Joe Fowler had run the San Francisco naval shipyard during WWII, when Walt Disney was looking for a naval expert to help with the building of the Mark Twain Riverboat in 1954 for the then under-construction Disneyland. He found the retired Admiral supervising the construction of tract homes in the San Francisco region, and hired him as the construction boss for the whole Disneyland project. After Disneyland was completed, Fowler stayed on as General Manager of the park for its first 10 years, and assisted with the construction of Walt Disney World. He retired from the Disney organization in 1978, though he continued as a consultant.
When a second steamship was added to the Rivers of America in 1973, it was named for Imagineer Richard F. Irvine. The original Fowler was damaged during a refurbishment in 1980. The Disney company decided that having two steamships in the Magic Kingdom was not necessary, so the Fowler was scrapped. Parts of it were repurposed for another riverboat, a replica of the Mark Twain at Tokyo Disneyland, which opened with that park in 1983.
In 1999, one of the ferries that crosses the Seven Seas Lagoon taking guests from the Ticket and Transportation Center to the Magic Kingdom was renamed in his honor; it was originally known as the Magic Kingdom I, and is the one with the green side panels.
==See also==
*Mark Twain Riverboat
Category:Extinct Attractions
Category:Former Magic Kingdom attractions
Category:Liberty Square