During the boating season of 1869, there were one hundred and forty-three landings made by steamboats at the Yankton Landing.  The largest proportion of Government annuity goods for the Indians and supplies for the military posts came to Sioux City by rail and then by steamboat up the muddy and  turbulent river.

In the beginning of the traffic on the river, there was a strong feeling among some officials that the upper portion of the Missouri River was not a practicable navigable stream.  It was only during the low water season in the fall did steamboat captains find difficulty in ascending the river.  It was during this time that the sandbars and snags were especially troublesome.

The snags were much more numerous at that time than in the later years.  They had been removed by Government boats expressly rigged for that purpose.  It was claimed by officials that all the most dangerous haunts of the snag had been explored and this foe to navigation had been eradicated.

As the area along the river became more settled, the settlers removed the trees from the river banks for fire wood.  During the ordinary boat season, which usually began in the middle of March or early April and continued until the last of October or well into November, the navigation of the Missouri River was not seriously hampered except by sand bars during low water level in the late fall.

Steamboats did not cease to navigate the Missouri because of any hindrance or obstacle to navigation.  It was the railroads that were extended to and across the river which carried passengers and freight more expeditiously and at less cost than the steamboat.

With the exception of 1863, which year was memorable as the driest ever known in the northwestern country, steamboating was favored by a good level of water each season.  Numerous fleets of steamboats were engaged in plying its waters.  The traffic was uniformly good for fifteen or twenty years.

In 1869, the river opened about the middle of March and water from the creeks and streams provided adequate water for navigation.  By the middle of May there were forty-eight boats that had been registered at Yankton, the only commercial port at that time on the river in Dakota Territory.  The “Evening Star” was one of those boats.

During the entire 1869 season there were about seventy-five boats engaged in traffic on the Missouri above Sioux City.  Forty to seventy-five were employed each year after the beginning of the emigration into Montana in 1863, until after the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad to Bismarck in 1873.

After Captain D. C. Poole boarded the “Evening Star” at Yankton, he noticed that it was not commodious, or luxuriously furnished in any way for the accommodation of passengers.  The small staterooms had scarcely enough in them for comfort.  The table was supplied with the coarsest food; fried liver and onions, fried bacon, thick hot coffee, and soggy biscuits were the menu items.  Milk and butter were luxuries which were not commonly available.

As they progressed up the river from Yankton, the captain and his crew seemed to direct all their attention towards making the “Evening Star” push her way over sand bars and to find that part of the river which contained the greatest depth of water.  This was often a hidden mystery which required a small boat and each man with a “sounding pole” to measure the depth of the water.

This was done while the steamboat “lay to” with her nose gently pushed against the bank, and her paddle wheel kept in just sufficient motion to hold her against the strong current.  When the selected channel proved to be a failure; the boat gradually slowed  up as contact with the sandy bottom was made and eventually came to a dead stop.

When this happened, the captain would shout “Plant a dead man!”  A small boat would be manned and a log would be carried on shore some distance above the point where the steamboat was stuck.

Here a line from the steamboat was fastened to the log, which had been firmly buried in a deep hole dug for that purpose.  The end of the line on board the steamboat was fastened to a rotating shaft.  When a full head of steam was applied, they would gradually be dragged over the sand bar.

If this failed, “double tripping” was the last resort.  This was the simple process of leaving half the freight on shore and the lightened vessel could pass over the shallow water to a point above.  Here the remainder of the freight would be unloaded, while they went back for the first half.  This was a slow and laborious process, which was the fear of every captain.

The passengers seemed to take the liveliest interest in the boat’s progress.  Many of them made comments on the probability of arriving at some wood yard or landing at a certain time.

So, amid many doubts, uncertainties, and perhaps a few prayers, they held their course and continued west for twenty miles to Bon Homme, the county seat of Bon Homme County.

 

Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on August 7, 2024