The North Alabama, a steamboat on the Missouri in the 1860s and 1870, hit a snag in the river near Vermillion and Goat Island on October 27, 1870. It quickly sank to the bottom of the treacherous, muddy, and every-changing waterway. The steamboat sank as it was transporting a cargo of flour and whisky from Sioux City to the Yellowstone River in Montana which was valued at $12,000.
When the steamer disappeared under the water on that eventful day, citizens and officials in the immediate area quickly forgot about the disappearance of the steamship. When it descended below the surface, no attempt was made to locate the boat and rescue the fifty barrels of whisky.
It would be thirty-six years before those living in the Vermillion area would once again be reminded of the North Alabama. Like a ghost from the past, the boat suddenly reveals itself above the water in early July of 1906. While the older residents remembered its sinking, it had passed from their minds until the old ship began to rise from its watery grave. This was the first of what would be three times when the mysterious vessel would suddenly show itself.
Newspapers in the area contained the following headlines: “Smack Lips Over Buried Whisky,” “Wreck of 36 Years Ago Shows Up in the Missouri,” and “Fifty Barrels of Whisky Were in the Cargo of the Alabama and None Was Recovered.” The story became very popular in the Minneapolis newspapers.
Once again in 2022 the boat was visible because the water level in the Missouri River was lowered due to the drought facing Nebraska, South Dakota, and other states upstream. Large portions of the rest of the United States was in some degree of drought: sixty-four percent of the continental United States was categorized as somewhere between “Abnormally Dry” and “Exceptional” drought, with 13% of the contiguous United States area being in either “Extreme” or “Exceptional” drought.
Lake Mead, located on the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona, in 2022 dropped to its lowest water level since it was constructed. Five complete separate sets of human remains were discovered. Most were suspected to be drowning victims; however, the first body that was discovered on the lake’s shores was found inside a barrel, and was riddled with bullet holes. Authorities suspected organized crime.
One Texas river that dried up revealed traces of a different dead creature: dinosaurs. The drought-dried Paluxy River, which usually flows through Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas, revealed previously unseen dinosaur footprints on the riverbed.
Worldwide, there were countless more cases of weird and wonderful things being found in the aftermath of the world-wide drought. In China, an ancient island that was normally submerged in a lake was visible much earlier than normal as a result of the drought and extreme dry conditions. In Spain, the ruins of an 11th-century church were unveiled by receding water levels. “Normally, you could only see the bell tower,” one tourist told The Guardian.
Some 400 steamboats sank in the Missouri River between 1819 and 1895. Most of the boats sank after striking large cottonwood snags, which were occasionally visible but just as often submerged. Some of the snags moved up and down with the river current. For the captain of the steamboat, this meant that a snag could rise up in a path that appeared to be safe just moments before.
Goat Island lies within the 59-mile District of the Missouri National Recreational River below Yankton. Situated along the Missouri National Recreational River Water Trail, the island is between Nebraska and South Dakota. Today, the 800-acre property supports a wide variety of wildlife on its sandbars and within its dense forested areas of cottonwood and Eastern red-cedar. The island is one of only a few places in both Nebraska and South Dakota where camping on an island is possible.
Both PIPING PLOVERS and LEAST TERNS are on the state endangered species list. Once down to only seven nesting pairs in the state, PIPING PLOVERS rebounded to 64 nesting pairs in 2017. LEAST TERNS nesting pair number dropped to 39 in 1982 but have slowly climbed to over 200 nesting pairs statewide.
The sandbars on Goat Island are ideal nesting sites for both the LEAST TERNS and PIPING PLOVERS. Hopefully state officials in both South Dakota and Nebraska, along with federal personnel will be able to improve and expand the nesting sites for these two fragile and endangered species. Goat Island will definitely have a big part in their survival.
The remains of the “North Alabama” which are usually submerged lie buried close to Goat Island. Normally, they are beneath several feet of water but when the river levels are low, the skeleton of the hull can be seen above the water’s surface. This happened in 1906 and again in the 1930s, after which the wreck was basically forgotten. It showed itself again three years ago in 2022.
If we consider the length of time between when the North Alabama sank in 1870 and today, we might expect to see the skeleton of that steamboat in either 2044, 2112, or some date in between.
Be sure that you circle those dates on your calendar!
Author Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on May 21, 2025