At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Congress had no regard for the Missouri River as a channel of commerce.  It was clear to most Americans that the river was an important channel of commerce as the frontier moved farther west.  Each and everyone except the members of Congress saw the significance of a free-flowing river that was free of snags and other obstacles for the economy above St. Louis.

As the nation entered the twentieth century, a committee of Congress refused to pass a bill which contained the necessary funds to keep the snags out of the way of the steamers, leaving the lower and upper river at the mercy of the swirling, changing, muddy waters.  There was a time when the snags in the river caused losses to steamboats mounting into the millions.

For the first boats that reached Sioux City or a site farther up-stream, they threaded a course full of danger.  Snags thrust their black tops out of the water and others lay grimly in waiting below the surface, ready to crash through the boat that failed to avoid them.  Snags were the cause of most of the wrecks and if the value of the boats destroyed could be ascertained there would be a figure in the millions which would far outbalance the sums which have been appropriated for improving the river channel.

A March 1901 story which appeared in several area newspapers reported that 295 steamboats had sunk in the Sioux City vicinity and became a victim of the muddy and turbulent Missouri River.  Of these steamers, a number were wrecked close to the city and the rest were claimed by the river somewhere between St. Louis, Missouri, and Fort Benton, Montana.

The Assiniboine, a single engine side-wheeler, owned by the American Fur Company from St. Louis was destroyed by fire on June 1, 1835, at the head of Sibley Island in North Dakota.  Earlier, the steamer came up the river on her first trip out from St. Louis.

She was burned on her second trip up the river.  The boat had gone aground when the river was falling rapidly and was soon left high and dry.  A flatboat was ordered built, upon which the cargo was to be floated down the river.

But before the cargo was removed, the boat took fire from a stovepipe in the cabin, and with it the cargo was entirely destroyed.  The shipment was from the mouth of the Yellowstone and consisted of 1,185 packs of pelts, with a large collection of Indian relics.  There were four live buffalo on board, which were run into the river and quickly swam to the shore.

Capt. Chittenden, Corps of Engineers, in his June 1897 report of steamboat wrecks on the Missouri River reported that 295 vessels had been lost in the Missouri River from the opening of steamboat navigation up to the present time.  This included 6 boats which were wrecked twice and finally lost, 1 boat wrecked three times and finally lost, 12 boats wrecked once and saved, and 1 boat wrecked twice and saved.

The cause of the wrecks were:  snags, 193; ice, 26;, fire, 25; rocks, 11; bridges, 10; explosion of boiler, 6; sands bars and falling river, 4; storm and wind, 2; ran into the bank, 1; collisions, 1; overloading, 1; swamping in violent eddy, 1; and unknown, 14.

Of the 295 wrecks, the great menace to the safety of navigation on the Missouri River was the snags and rocks which were innumerable.  This fact totally justified the plan to clear the river of these obstructions which the Congress had earlier declined to fund.  This would have reduced the insurance rates for Missouri river boats significantly.

The loss of steamboats by fire was due to sheer carelessness.  The carrying of candles into the hold, the overturning of lights, and other similar negligence’s, explain many of these disasters.  The use of electricity greatly diminished the use of candles.

Ice was one of the principal causes of steamboat wrecks, and this danger never diminished over the years of navigation on the river.  Suitable ways for hauling disabled boats out of the river were never developed and no ice harbors to speak of had been constructed on the river.

Accidents from steamboat explosions were very common, and of appalling fatality in the early history of steamboat navigation.  In Lloyds’ Steamboat Disasters, published in 1856, out of a total of 213 wrecks given, 124 were from this cause, and of the 2,035 lives lost, the greater part were on boats so wrecked.

This record is probably not to be relied upon strictly, for the sensational tenor of the work indicates that special attention was devoted to the more terrible disasters, and other early records do not corroborate its statements.  But after due allowance was made for exaggeration, it is nevertheless true that in the early steamboating days boiler explosions were both frequent and terribly destructive of life and property.

The improvements in the material and construction of boilers, the better arrangement for supplying feed water, the application of various safety appliances and, above all, the enforcement of Government laws and regulations which provided for the inspection and tests of materials and workmanship in marine boilers during construction.  Boats were also inspected annually and the chief officer of the boat had to be licensed.

The other causes of steamboat wrecks, except for bridges, were mostly accidental and reveal that we occasionally made stupid decisions!

 

Author Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on April 16, 2025