The swift and turbulent character of the unruly Missouri River led to numerous accounts by early explorers of the difficulty of navigating it. Such navigation was at first considered wholly out of the question except in the simplest craft.
Steamboat navigation was always a risky and uncertain business. Boats were often caught on sand bars, from which they had to be set free. This was a difficult task and caused much loss of time. Snags or sediment were also problems which required that the captain of the steamboat be constantly vigilant!
The Missouri represented in the highest degree the peculiar dangers characteristic of alluvial streams. The current was swift, its channel full of snags, and its surface nearly always ruffled by the prairie winds.
There was never five minutes that permitted the captain to take his hand from the wheel or the engineer to let go of the throttle. The communication system between the pilot-house and the engine room was always in service. The tinkle of signal bells in the engine room was almost continuous.
Submerged tree trunks (snags) could easily rip a hole in the side of the boat. They were the most common cause of steamboat wrecks on the Missouri River. The danger from snags was always present and sometimes very great. The passage of these obstructions was a matter of great concern for both officers and passengers. Less dangerous, but not less annoying was the passage of shallow sandbars.
The ever-shifting conditions of the river channel caused the captain to seek all available information as to its latest position. When other boats were met there was an eager swapping of notes, for it was a common practice in later years for captains to assist each other by keeping notes of the condition of the river over which they passed.
The captains thus came to know the river by heart from its mouth to the head of navigation. The extraordinary knowledge of its topography and nomenclature which Captain LaBarge retained to the end of his life was almost incredible.
Regarding the uncertainty of the Missouri River, the Sioux City Journal on March 28, 1868 contained this editorial comment:
“Of all the variable things in creation the most uncertain are the action of a jury, the state of woman’s mind, and the condition of the Missouri River.”
Steamboat hours were as long as the light of day would permit. It was not customary to run at night, unless there was ample moonlight and the business was extremely urgent. But every hour of daylight was utilized. The farther up the river one went, the evening twilight and morning daybreak almost touched hands across the few hours of darkness. Three o’clock A. M. was a common hour for starting and 9 P. M. of stopping. The crew was generally divided into four watches, so that they could take turns in getting sleep during the day.
The early morning run on the river was generally the most successful of the day, unless it was the late evening run. At both times the wind was generally low enough to cause few serious problems. The landscape likewise appeared at its best, and the sight of sunrise or sunset on the river was one to be remembered. The water was comparatively calm at those hours, particularly in the early morning.
When the steamboats began to carry passengers in considerable numbers, more attention was paid to the table fare than in the early days when the passenger list was made up almost entirely of men going to serve with the fur companies. In those days pork, hominy, and navy beans made up the main bill of fare.
Whenever possible, they relied on wild game for meat. Hunters were regularly employed on the various boats. They were selected for their skill and usually not for any other work. They would leave the boat about midnight, some three or four hours before the boat continued on its journey, to scour the river bank. When an animal was killed, it was hung up in some conspicuous place and brought to the boat as it passed.
In the Annual Report of the Missouri River Commission for the Fiscal Year ending June 30th, 1897, Captain Hiram Chittenden published a compilation showing the loss of 295 steamboats on the Missouri from the beginning of steam navigation to June 30, 1897. Of these 20 were lost within the boundaries of South Dakota.
The captain of a steamboat on the Missouri was beyond question the most skillful representative of his profession. In his History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Joseph LaBarge wrote: “In no other kinds of navigation were the qualities of quick perception, intuitive grasp of the situation, nerve to act boldly and promptly, coolness and judgment in times of danger, so important and so constantly in demand.” According to LaBarge,
“Navigation on the ocean was child’s play in comparison.”
The position of captain was responsible and exacting, and called for a high order of ability. It turned out that the better pilots of the steamboat were men of high standing and character in the community. This happened in Yankton which was the origin of most all traffic up the river.
Today, a number of their stately homes still stand in the older section of that city.
Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on May 1, 2024