Goodbye Lake Elsinore Princess: Death Of A Legend

A few local residents worked very hard to save the "Lake Elsinore Princess," but it wasn’t enough.

On Oct. 18, the legendary boat was ripped apart and its mutilated body thrown into dumpsters.

A Patch reporter snapped the attached images during the demolition process.

Standing by was Pete Dawson, a long-time Lake Elsinore resident who has served the city in many capacities, including as a member of the Lake Elsinore Princess Foundation, a group that worked to save the boat that was built just after World War I for Catalina Island’s most famous resident, William Wrigley.

The 84-foot-long wooden glass bottom boat was a 93-ton side-wheeler equipped with underwater lights for night trips from Avalon Harbor on Catalina, according to the Foundation's website. 

The Princess changed hands over the years and allegedly transported many famous passengers, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Hedda Hopper, J. Edgar Hoover, Ray Milland, Jimmy Stewart, George Raft and others.

But by the 1990s the boat became inactive. In 1999 Dawson purchased the Princess and had her transported to Lake Elsinore from Long Beach. Click here to read more about "the move."

The goal was to rehab the Princess and turn her into a tourist attraction, but due to lack of financial support those dreams were finally crushed Friday. Click here to read what Dawson and other Lake Elsinore Princess Foundation members had to say about the boat's final demise.

Do you have special buildings or monuments in Lake Elsinore or Wildomar that you want to help save? Get involved otherwise they could go the way of the Princess. Reach out to the Lake Elsinore Historical Society at (951) 678-1537 or the Wildomar Historical Society at (951) 291-7188 if you have time and or/funds you want to donate to a cause. Also contact city officials: Lake Elsinore City Hall can be reached at (951) 674-3124; the phone number for Wildomar City Hall is (951) 677-7751.