Celebrating History on the Water
Queen II Celebrates 40 Years Reigning Over West Lake Okoboji
There are icons in our community with powerful legacies. Their vision and sacrifice for bettering the Iowa Great Lakes area remain deeply ingrained within our roots and why one such special person holds a forever spot on the State Pier. Few people have impacted the nautical archives of the region like Steve Kennedy did during his lifetime.
In Lake Life Okoboji’s second segment of its three-part series featuring the area’s special “Monarchs,” we learn how the iconic Queen II arrived to West Okoboji 40 years ago and reminisce about the first captain of this special excursion boat.
Bringing Back the Queen
For over a hundred years, large passenger steamboats have played a major role on the area’s waterways. Today, the Queen II highlights this tradition and guests enjoy what was once standard transportation.
The original Queen was removed from the Okoboji waters in 1973, after being sold to Adventureland in Altoona. Ten years later, the Empress, another large passenger boat was moved to Hot Springs, AK, leaving the Iowa Great Lakes without a passenger boat.
“We had gone over a hundred years with steamboats on the lake and now we were without one,” said, Mary Kennedy, current Curator of the Maritime Museum. “In 1983, a lot of people were upset about the loss.”
Mary has special memories of this time period. In 1969, her husband Steve and her moved back to Spirit Lake, and they quickly became best friends with their neighbors, Tom and Audrey Kuhlman. After the Empress left, Steve and Tom brainstormed ways to bring a passenger boat back to West Lake Okoboji.
“Tom had just been named the Executive Director of the Iowa Great Lakes Chamber of Commerce and he was thinking of ways to increase tourism. Tom and Steve really wanted to bring a boat back to the lake,” Mary remembered. “They tried to get the original Queen back but it wasn’t feasible so they researched building a new one.”
At the same time, the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum was born.
The group did everything possible to raise funds for the new Queen. “We broke up into groups, going door to door asking for donations, while the hull was being built in Sturgeon Bay, WI.
In May 1986, the beloved “Monarch” returned to the Iowa Great Lakes. Mary said the group met the truck at Armstrong, IA and caravaned alongside. “When we got to the edge of Spirit Lake, there were lines and lines of people all the way to the amusement park. There was a large group by the courthouse. People were cheering and they had flags.”
The hull of the Queen II was moved onto the beach at Arnolds Park Amusement Park. Some of the boat was built at the airport hanger in Okoboji and other sections were added on the beach. Forbes House Moving Company helped move the new passenger boat into West Lake Okoboji.
“They put together the Queen II on the beach and so many people helped with it,” Mary said.
Once in the water, every night Steve parked the Queen II along the Grade. Steve was asked to be the captain, which Mary said, “Never mind that he’d never driven anything larger than his beloved Hafer motorboat. But he became a pro at maneuvering around the lake.”
The Maiden Voyage
On Saturday, June 21, 1986, the Queen II held its first court and for $100 a ticket, a guest could enjoy the boat’s maiden voyage. Excitement had been brewing throughout the community but the day didn’t start quite the way Steve had planned.
“It did not get off to a good start,” Mary shared. “At 3 a.m., a violent storm came, and Steve and our son Keith went down to see if the Queen was okay. Unfortunately, she had pulled up the dock and mangled it but was still hanging on. Steve had one quarter handy and called Tom to come help. I didn’t hear from them until 7:30 a.m., when they walked in the door exhausted.” 
In the afternoon, the dock was quickly being restored, so Steve piloted the Queen II around in circles in front of Arnolds Park until repair was complete. About 3 p.m., Steve was able to dock the boat and people excitedly waited for the maiden voyage, which also included Governor Terry Branstad, who later christened the Queen II as the flagship of the Iowa Navy.
“Pulling the Queen II out was not easy for Captain Steve, as there were hundreds of boats circled around her, but he did it. There were snacks and champagne and great fun was had by all. It was truly wonderful and Captain Steve was an excellent pilot,” she added.
The first summer was filled with ups and downs and Mary remembered that basically anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. “Thankfully people were so good and very patient. We learned a lot by doing,” she added. “Tom helped Steve a lot with all the mechanical work.”
Over the summer, it was a typical Okoboji season with beautiful days but also very hot and windy days. Anyone who has piloted the Queen on West Lake Okoboji knows how wind can make a cruise, especially docking, a bit more difficult. The other concern was the varying depths around the lake, especially around the points.
“One time Tom rode along with Steve so they could practice docking at Village West, since there was an upcoming charter. At the time, the dock was straight out and wasn’t screwed down. Even though they landed fine, the wind pushed the Queen II against the dock and it was quickly history,” Mary recalled. “Once the Queen got on the lake, she always rode smoothly, no matter the weather. It’s just hard to dock and slow down a big boat when the wind is pushing it towards land.”
Another time Mary said they went to Omaha Point and picked up people from a nearby dock. They ran into a big problem when they discovered that the boat was much higher than the dock, “so we were hoisting people onto the boat,” she said with a laugh. “Then when all the people got on the boat, it got stuck. So, everyone had to move to the front of the boat to get it moving out farther on the lake.”
As Captain Steve guided the Queen II around West Lake Okoboji, his humor-laced patter about area lore brought patrons back again and again. He enjoyed sharing stories about the area’s history over the P.A. system. “Sometimes people would clap for Captain Steve’s narration, which was so rewarding to him,” she shared.
Remodeling the “Monarch”
In the spring of 1995, Tom Kuhlman and his son Kevin helped remodel the Queen II, where they rebuilt the super structure and replaced rotting wood with aluminum. Painting took place and the floors were updated.
“We got the boat ready so quickly in 1986, there were some things never completed properly,” Mary said, “Then the wood started to rot. The beautiful boat 40 years later doesn’t look like the boat that initially arrived. Changing the wood to aluminum has really helped preserve the Queen”
Other work has been done to the Queen II over the past 40 years, such as replacing and fixing engines. Over the winter of 2024, a generous donor allowed the excursion boat to undergo elaborate renovations, including all new engines, generators, shafts, seals, and propellers. It returned to Lake Okoboji waters in late-May 2024.
Captain Steve
Unfortunately, Captain Steve lost a two-year battle with cancer in September 2002. His lifelong passion for nautical memoirs on the Iowa Great Lakes preserved the area’s history for generations. Whether it was effortlessly piloting the Queen II across the lake to sharing stories with the boat’s guests, he left a legacy few can replicate.
“We were so blessed! Captain Steve was most happy when he was out on the water and enjoyed sharing the area’s history with all ages, but especially school-aged children. There isn’t anyone who could live narrate like he could,” Mary said. “He loved people and people loved him.”
Mary took over Steve’s role as curator of the Arnolds Park Maritime Museum. He also passed on his love of the water and ability to navigate West Lake Okoboji with today’s current captains. Readers can learn more about them in the third part of the series, which will be shared in the fall issue of Lake Life Okoboji.