Wheeler Lake HistoryWheeler Lake History Information

1938

The origins of Popeye the Sailor
Back in 1913 the lock and dam at Mayo’s Bar in Georgia had been completed by the Corps making navigation over the Horseleg Shoals of the Coosa easier. The dam raised water levels about 10 feet.

The Corps was charged to keep the channel clear and they used the boat “Annie M” later renamed “Leota.” The Captain was named Sims and was a resident of Ohatchee, Alabama. His son, Tom Sims became a comic strip artist when he inherited the strip “Thimble Theatre” from its creator Elzie Segar who died in 1938.

“The strips story line dealt with the Oyl family that owned a shipping business. Commodore Oyl had a son, Castor, and a daughter, Olive. One of the sailors that worked for the Commodore was a “wise cracking, spinach eating chap” named Popeye. Tom Sims took that character, spun him off and gave him his own strip thus creating “Popeye the Sailorman.”

Tom Sims is quoted saying “Fantastic as Popeye is, the whole story is based on facts. As a boy I was raised on the Coosa River. When I began writing the script for Popeye I put my characters back on the old “Leota” that I knew as a boy, transformed it into a ship and made the Coosa River a salty sea.” (dnordem)

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