The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-02-23
A r
Where Many Mississippi River
Steamboats, Lie Buried.
The Fatal Locality in Which Many Pala-
tial Steamer Went DowG-Names of
Some of the Well Kemem-
bered Boats.

by Mayor Walbridge in the channel of
the river above the Chain Of Rocks.
says the st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
will bring to the minds of many of our
old steamboat men the disasters that
befell the marine craft of this city in
hat portion of the river now included
in the harhor of st. Louis. The char
ter harbor Of the city includes that
stretch Of the Mississippi river be-
tween the mouth of the Missouri and
the mouth of the Merrimac. That por-
ton Of the harbOr under the care and
control of the wharf and harhor com
missioner lies between the Chain Of
Rocks and the Eives DIES Heres. From
the upper mouth of the Missouri to the
foot Of North Market street there are
now lying under the silt and sands the
wrecks Of over sixty boats and barges.
Many of these steamboats, We're the
largest. best equipped and s%peediest
that ever walked the n~avigable water
ways of the country. They We're in
reality marine palaces. such as this
generation has not seen.
Sawyer's bend was the fatal Locality
where nearly all these splendid craft
foundered and settled under the shift
ing sands of the t~reacherous channel.
Among the boats that We're lost many
now living will recall the following:
York State. Southerner. Mary Elain.
Highland Mary. Grace Darling. Ale
ghenv. Federal Arch. c. Buln. Euba.
Baltimore. John b. Carson. phlladel-
phia. Edinburg. Challenge, Moderator.
Nebraska. Sioux City. White Cloud.
Omaha. New Admiral. Geneva. Warsaw.
Empire City. Gov. Sharkey. Submarine
No. 10. Saranac No. 2. War Eagle. Ben
johnson. Gerard Il. Allen. Fanny Scott.
Henry Adkins. Columbia. Silver Bow.
r.. j. Lockwood. Wild Duck. Nile. Vic
toria. Champion. Blue Lodge. Calhoun.
Alma. Central City, Raven. %>alvor. j. ".
Garrett. Hudson. Beaver. John 7.
Keiser. Pacific. Lulu Worth. COrnelia
and Badger State.
The above were sunk between the
years 1879 and 1855. In addition to
these there We're twenty barges lost
north of Bi>sell's point within the same
wear. No record was kept of the saw
yer" or cut lumber RATS that were lost
south of Alton. but it has been esti-
mated that the aggregate value was
over d million dollars. Only two OF
the a~bove-naIned boats. the Calhoun
and Alma. were raised. The bones Of
all the others lie many feet beneath the
sands. petrifying under the action of the
waters. The actual loss in marine
property to the merchants Of st. Louis
by the sinking of these boats was over
g., ,,;11in~. I,1lo1r * 81 cod onyl-
mentarv upon the action of congress in
its failure to provide adequate means
for the removal of the cause of these
disasters. and the general policy Of
making only ~dribbling appropriations
for river and harbor improvements,
that after 1850 few, # any, of these
marine palaces were replaced with
others. Mango of the owners in the loss
of this property lost not only all they
had, but also lost courage because of
the increasing dangers to the marine
Of the immediate harbor Of
st. Louis.
To add to the pathetic story of these
disasters. many of them fatal to life. it
might be stated in passing that during
the period named above tifty-tive splen-
did steamers We're destroyed by fire
within the charter harbOr of the city.
The hulls of many of them lie just out
side of the present water line and form
the retaining dixie for the granite
wharf. Many Of the grandfathers and
grandmothers of to-day will remember
with varying emotions their bridal
trips on the James Howard. the Lee
viathan. the bismarck, the Grand Re
public, the Carrie V. Kountz, and others
equally as grand. The upper mouth
of the Missouri within the past forty
years, where it empties into the Mis-
Sissippi. has changed its location four
or five times, and its present mouth is
several miles south of the one that eX-
listed a few years ago. Opposite these
various mouths. and for one mile south
ward, many of the disasters named
above occurred. The %outpouring Of the
Missouri waters was swift, the eddies
and currents were t~reacherOus and the
snags and other distractions so numer-
Gus at that point that unusual care was
necessary in order to avoid the fatal
places.
The conditions that existed in Saw
yers bend forty years ago exist prac-
tically to-day, and are still a serious
menace to the marine of the
city. with the added dangers to the
important municipal and railroad in
terests that have grown with the re-
Quirements OF the water supply and the
transportation demands of a great me
tropolis.
If the waters in Sawyer's bend could