Daily camera., 1898-01-13
A FORTUNE IN WHISKY.
The Valuable Cargo Of a Buried
River Steamboat.
Change in the Course of the Missouri
River Leaves the Boat to Set
tie In Thirty Feet of
Sand.


at st. Louis with 1875 barrels of whisky,
a large quantity of queensware and
general merchandise, and started on its
usual trip for Omaha and Sioux City.
1t got no further toward it's destina-
ton than Parksvills, Mo-, where it
struck "a snag of some Kind, and its 30
or 40 passengers had all they could do
to scramble to safety before the steam
er sark. The women and children were
saved by the prompt lowering OF the
boats, and the men had to swim ashore
as best they could.
Thereafter the Missouri river began
to play tag with it's course, shifting
and turning and forcing new channels,
until the spot where the whisky-laden
boat went down was left high and dry.
The lost steamer was first discovered
in 1879, when its smoliestack and pilot S
cabin were seen protruding from the
Kansas side. They remained visible for
several years, and during all that time,
strange to say, no one thought of dig
ging out the boat for the sake of the
cargo of whisky with which it was
known to be filed from main deck to
keel. 1t was only when it had sunk
out of sight and the location had been
forgotten ard lost, owing to the con
stant varying of the map caused by the
rivers freaks, that we began to realize
what we had missed in neglecting to
secure the treasure when we had it so
close to our hands.
When it was found one day the steam
er had gone from sight the people
around here woke up and began to
search for it. Soothsayers were con-
suited, seventh sons of seventh sons
were urged over a vast extent of terri
tory, all to no purpose. 1t was ascer-
tanned, after a great deal of inquiry,
that survivor of the wreck was living
in the person of Charles A. Garside, but
as he was only six months old, and
the youngest passenger aboard at the
time of the disaster, he was not able
to help the sanguine searchers with his
of the affair, and so they
had to go back to the soothsayers, sew
enth sons and divining rods, and at last
everyone gave it up in despair.
Last January | began to think there
was possibility of discovering the lost
steamer in a systematic search with a
few practical men to help me, and few
of us got together ard formed a com
pany, consisting of myself, Gale Hem
son, T. j. Reece and j. D. Henderson.
We procured lease of five years on
several hundred acres of land around
the spot where it was thought the lost
steamer lay, and began prospecting in
earnest. We continued the search long
and patiently, and it is now shown that
we were SO near to the treasurein many
Of our soundings that we almost
scraped the rusty sides of the steamer
with our drill points, but did not actual
ly touch the spot.
Our method was to drive iron rods
down 25 or so feet, and if we struck
nothing but soft earth to pull them
up and strike again. We had driven
over nearly 1G0 acres of land, and were
losing heart, when suddenly the drill
truck something hard and metallic.
We pulled it up and tried again Il few
feet to the right, with the same result; !;
then few feet to the left, metal again.
\ third driving showed the same re-
suit. Then we knew we had struck our
sunken whisky mine.
The spot where the boat was found
is Is feet below low-water mark and
about 26 to 80 feet deep in sand. The
steamer is evidently deeper in some
places than in others, and apparently
lies with its bowsprit lower than its
stern, and slightly on it's side. It is
90 feet long and GO feet wide. We have
everything in readiness to begin the
work OF excavating the treasure. having
obtained air compressors, caissons, boil
ers and engines, and operations will
commence at once. We expect to get
5000 gallons of whisky and other mer-
chandise worth in the aggregate at least
100000.
AS to the quality or the whisky there
is no doubt in our minds, but some have
endeavored to show that it has been
spoiled by it's long repose underground
1t will certainly be the most remarka-
BILE liquor ever sampled, and should sell
at a fancy figure for the mere sake OF
the money it will realize if doled out
to those who will wish to taste it as
a matter of curiosity. But / believe il
will be liquor fit for the gods. 1t was
originally splendid three-year-old Ken,
lucky whisky.-John A. Eby, in Chi
cago Tribune.