Bittersweet ending for wandering boathouse tale in Lansing ...

The boathouse discovered by Bill FitzGerald of Lansing after it had floated into his riverside property last fall - first reported about in the April 8 edition of The Standard after a months-long search process of trying to find its owner - finally had its rightful owner found recently. However, the structure also fell victim to the wrath of Mother Nature in the meantime, as strong winds that blew through the area Sunday, April 12 grabbed hold of the tied-up boathouse structure and left it as pictured in the accompanying photos. The family that owned the boathouse, however, was able to salvage much of the structure for different purposes, doing so within the past week.
FitzGerald had been trying to find the owner of the boathouse ever since it had drifted into his dock property on the banks of the Mississippi River along the north end of Front Street, Lansing during high water levels on the river late last fall.

Initial efforts had been made through the City of Lansing, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and other local means to try and identify the boathouse and who the owner may be, but a tip received from an area resident following the April 8 article in The Standard pointed FitzGerald in the direction of Lock and Dam Number 8, where officials then contacted the local district office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That district office, indeed, had registration records of the boathouse according to the numbers painted and/or attached on each end of the structure, and from those numbers the Corps was able to provide FitzGerald with contact information for the family that owned the structure and arrange for its removal, even though the Sunday, April 12 wind storm ended up making that removal process a little more involved than what may have been originally planned. Submitted photos.