The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-05
A RIVER GRAVEYARD.
Many Boats Lost in the Missouri.
In the Heyday of the Business.

From the Evansville (lnd.) Courier.
The biggest marine graveyard in the
United States is that part of the Mis-
souri, river between st. Joseph and st.
Louis. In the tortuous stretches be-
tween these two cities the wrecks of
more than 200 steamboats, lie buried
in the bends This was the testimony
of Capt. Phil Chappell of Kansas City,
one of the veterans of the river, at
a reunion of the old Missouri river
steamboatmen at Lincoln, Neb. Chap
pell who spent more than thirty years
on the river, is now a bank president.
There is not now a single steam
boat on the whole stretch of river that
even plays at navigating it. Its evo-
luton has been complete" he says.
The Indian with his canoe, the
French voyageur with his pirogue, the
American fur trader with his keel
boat, the magnificent passenger steam
er-each in turn has gone up and
down, but to-day, on what was once
the commercial highway of the West,
there now remains only the original
naVigator-the little blue-w winged teal.
And yet there is much of history
still clinging to the old river. Fifty
years ago fully sixty boats were regu-
larly employed in carrying the trade
between ST. Louis and st. Joseph, and
fully as many more made. irregular
trips to Omaha and Sioux City and to
Fort Benton, the head of navigation.
At that time no railroad had been
built west of the Mississippi, and the
entire commerce of the Rocky noun
tain region was transported over the
Missouri In 1919 the problem of nav
igation of the river had been solved
by st. Louis men, Col. Rector ana
others, and thereafter the way was
open.
1.-The first boat to ascend the river
was a government steamer, the west
ern Engineer, which was built express
ly to terrorize the Indians. She was a
sternwheeler, rs fet long, with 49,
foot beam and drew 10 inches of water.
On her bow was the escape pipe, made
in imitation of huge serpent with its
mouth open and tongue painted red.
The steam escaped through the mouth
at intervals, making a noise like the
dying groans of a great sea monster.
The noise could be heard for miles,
and the Indians who ventured to the
river bank to gaze upon 1t fed in ter
ror, convinced that the Manitou had
shown himself in a new and fearful
form.
Twelve years later improvements
made in the boats enabled them to
navigate the upper water. Pierre
Chouteau, the head of the American
fur trade company, was the first man
to navigate beyond the Iowa frontier.
In 1881 he built the Yellowstone, and
in May of that year passed the mouth
of the Niobrara, in Nortehrn Nebraska,
and finally landed at the mouth Of
Milk river in South Dakota. In the
following year other boats were
launched by this company. One each
year was sent to the headWaters, and
| life on board was decidedly strenuous.
Indian loitered in the river banks to
take a shot at the boat, and each night
il had to be achored in nidstream to
avoid surprises. Fuel was scarce, and
while half the crew went into the
woods to cut timber the remainder
stood guard with muskets.
THE next era of the river was its
golden one. With the establishment
of military posts in the Northwest the
tide of emigration set in. The year
1847 saw the end of the fur trade on
the Upper Missouri. The fur-carrying
boats were replaced by stern-wheelers
with a single engine, which carried all
supplies from civilization. BY 1850 the
advance in building the boats had been
such that they became veritable pal
aces. State rooms, cabin rooms and
dining saloons were introduced. Travel
by boat became one of the luxuries
and pleasures of life. The Missouri
river boats were not whit behind
those on the Mississippi, and much
the same scenes were witnessed on
| them. In the place of the rich plan
| tation owner ready for the fleeing the
gamblers that infested the boats had
as their prey the fur trader and the
freighter of the plains, men who made
| their thousands a month. Poker was
| the only game played, and many big
games were pulled off. There were
| tragedies too, dark and bloody deeds.
Those were days when to call a man
| a liar meant a fight with guns, and to
intimate that he was cheat invited
| immediate assassination Many of these
boats cost from $4,000 to $4,000,
princely sums for the time.
The pilot was in those days the au-
tocrat of the river-the big man on
every boat. He received large wages,
sometimes as much as 81 900 or 81, 800 a
month, and he spent it like a thorough
bred. The first labor union organized
west of the Mississippi was that of the
pilots of this river. and as no man
could learn the river without long and
careful tutelage, the pilots were well
| able to dictate their own wages. Pilot
ing in the Missouri was a science, and
the skilful man was one of wonderful
memory of localities. He had to know
the river thoroughly. He had to know
it by night as we'll as by day. Snags,
| bars, rocks and sunken wrecks were
a continued menace. but despite all of
his precaution he would lose boat. Be
tween 1910 and 1880 over 300 boats were
| sunk.
"Steamboating on the Missouri was in
its heyday between 1850 and 1860.
Splendid boats of beautiful construc-
ton carried hundreds of passengers and
thousands of tons of freight. But the
whistle of the first locomotive as it re-
sounded through the Blacksnake hills,
near st. Joseph, in 1859, sounded the
death knell of this industry. 1t soon
became evident that river transporta-
ton was a poor rival and the war
soon ended it. Dozens of boats were
lost in the troublous times of the early
SOS. Guerrillas in the lower reach made
navigation almost impossible. A few
boats went higher 70 escape the ravages
of war. and between Sioux City and
Fort Benton found a thriving trade.
The discovery of gold in Montana in
1862 caused a big rush that partially
revived the industry. but when the
Northern Pacific pushed it's rails into
the northwest it forever settled it,"
nan STnRX FROM MANILA