The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-05-20
CARGOES OF GOLD IN
The GOOD OLD DAYS
When Missouri River Steam.
boat Owners Made Fortunes
Every Year.
From the Kansas City Star.

Now that the success of the million
dollar steamboat project is sure
Kansas City is beginning to believe
that the golden age" OF the Missouri
But II golden age" means buckskin
sacks full of gold dust as we'll as huge
trade profits, that age was 40 years ago.
Profits? In the year 1866 the profits
Of the steame Peter Balen We're sos
600, of the w. j. Lewis. $4,000. Of the
Tacony $4,000, of the ST. John $4,000,
and in 1867 the OctaNia cleared $40,-
900. Gold was .he chief cargo of every
boa that returned from Montana.
With the discovery of gold in Mon
a the steamboat trade on the Mis-
souri, Jumped in two years to enormous
proportions. Before 1854 there had
been only six steamboat arrivals at the
levee in Fort Benton. But in 1866 and
1867 there We're 30 arrivals.
The trade reached high water mark
in 1867" says Captain Hiram Martin
Chittenden in his History of EARLY
Steamboat Navigation on the Mis-
kouri River" 1t presented n of the
most extraordinary Developments
known to the history of
There We're times when 80 or 40 steam
boats were OH :he river between Fort
Benton and the mouth of the Yellow
stone. where all the wa the river
flowed amid scenes of wildness that
We're in the strictest sense primeval. To
one who could hav been set down in
the unbroken wilderness along the
banks of the river, where nothing dwelt
except wild -nimals and wilder men.
where the fierce Indian made life a
tation greeted the eye. 1t woul have
, seemed marvellous and wholly unex-
plicable to find the river filed with
noble craft, as beautiful as any that
then ever rode the ocean stored With
all the necessaries of civilization and
crnU.1o1 wifi, rncSa,UorS a -o1,1t,,r11
asfined and We'll dressed as the cabin
list of an ocean liner. Certainly a most
extraordinary scene, flashed for a mo-
ment before the world and hen with
drawn forever
When passengers wished to return
from Montana at any other season
than spring or early summer there
were no steamboats, for them. They
either must wait or take their chances
in an open boat called a mackinaw.
Then the great danger was from In
Hans.
1T was regarded as a sort Of forlorn
hope to go down the river in an open
boat" Captain chittenden says, yet
many tried 1t every year Generally
they got through all right, with their
precious freight Of gold dust from the
mines. but there We're some terrible
tragedies as the penalty of such reck-
less daring"
According to Captain Chittenden. the
IIlOSl lnlGol anu VI lilcSc IldGklldW
trips was in 1866 under the leadership
Of ]. B. Hubbel of the firm of Haw-
ley & Hubbell.
! "Hubbell had advertised that his
steamboat would leave Fort Benton on
her second trip about September is,
promising. if she did not get to Fort
Benton, to take the passengers down in
q mackinaw until they met her. AS
late as October 90 she had not APP
peared. and accordingly about 80 men
started down the river in a mackinaw.
The boat was a very elaborate one,
built especially for this particular trip.
1t was so feet long. ~ foot beam,
housed in on 10th sides with bullet
proof walls for a distance Of so feet,
with sleeping Junk along the sides
and open spaces at how and stern for
managing the toat. Two masts rugged
with square sails were provided.
The boat was run on a rigorous
schedule, starting before daylight and
continuing until after dark. Wherever
possible it was tied to a snag in the
stream for the night to guard against
a surprise from Indians. Everyone on
the BOAT took a turn at the oars to
make progress more rapid.
Game was plentiful and the boat was
full of gold DUST the captain wrote
80 in spite Of the fear OF ice and In
dians. the party were in the best OF
spirits. They arrived ct Sioux City
November % with the river running
full of ice. Two'days later they would
have been frozen in