. At the Sultana Disaster Museum, we tell the lost stories of the disaster and those individuals who experienced it. WEST MEMPHIS, ARK. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported passengers and freight between St. Louis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River.. On April 23, 1865, the vessel docked in He would hardly fill the bill as a traditional Mississippi River steamboat mate; and were his prototype shown on the stage it would be voted slow, uninteresting, and untrue to type. An epilogue to Tennessee steamboating came in the 1970s with the return of the pleasure sternwheeler to the Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers. Terry said. In the early morning hours of April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded into a fiery blaze on the Mississippi River, eventually drifting and sinking near the Arkansas banks. Aurora (1902) steam screw. An estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this disaster. $75,000 in gold coins. The much written about sidewheeler, Effie Afton, may be in the river. He has plenty to share about river folklore and history. On April 27, 1865, the United States experiences its worst maritime disaster in history. The city of Vicksburg was ravaged by the American Civil War, and so were the men who were about to board the steamboat Sultana. She set sail from St. Louis on the Mississippi River after being loaded with around 200 tons of cargo destined to be the winter provisions for 16 towns scattered along the Midwest frontier. Mississippi and Red rivers, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, p. 574. The vessel sank in 1820 in the Missouri River after hitting a snag, an obstruction in the river caused by a fallen tree, in the Missouri River. An estimated 1,800 people died, but few today have heard of this disaster. Somewhere near Ocean Springs, Mississippi. By that standard, the loss of the Golden Eagle was a minor event. The Sunken Treasure of Steamboat The Ben Sharrod. Before the Civil War, steamboats were a primary mode of transportation along the Mississippi River and its tributaries such as the Arkansas. It rises near Edinburg in Leake County and twists its way 485 miles (190 as the crow flies) through Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico near the Rigolets. Wreck of the Quincy, lying on the bottom. Minnesota Historical Society. $30,000 in gold. It turns out the mighty river system that once provided a vital artery for American commerce is still hiding a few hidden surprises, namely steamboat shipwrecks in farm fields, far from where any ships should reasonably belong. Arabia Steamboat Museum. SS. Catahoula swamp in Hancock County Mississippi. Currier & Ives print entitled "The Champions Of The Mississippi - Race For The Buckhorns." From 1817 to 1871, about 5,600 people died on Mississippi River wrecks of all sorts, including burst boilers, collisions and fires. The William J. Lewis, built in Metropolis in 1867, made two trips along the treacherous 2,000-mile stretch of Missouri River between St. Louis and Fort Benton, Montana, carrying military items and household goods. The east bank of the Mississippi River, about 30 miles south of Natchez, Mississippi. This terrible accident took place in the middle of an exceedingly cold night. The Mississippi River forms the states western boundary, while the Gulf of Mexico stretches across the southern border. Prior to this project, two steamboat wreck sites had been identified within Aitkin Countys portion of the river the Andy Gibson and the Swan. When the Princess pulled up to the wharf in Baton Rouge early on the morning of February 27, 1859, it was already late. Attesting this amazing feat are the hundreds of steamboat wrecks from the same period that line the river. The boat was loaded with passengers, mostly from Mississippi and Louisiana, headed to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. At low stages of the river these wrecks now impede navigation, though they do not entirely prevent the passage of steamers. Attesting this amazing feat are the hundreds of steamboat wrecks from the same period that line the river. Stack Island, also known as Crows Nest and Island No. was notorious for many years as a den for the rendezvous of horse thieves, counterfeiters, robbers, and murderers. Originally presented, April 8th, 2014 at Les Bourgeois Vineyards Bistro in Rocheport, MO. On April 27, 1865, a steamboat named the Sultana exploded and sank while transporting Union soldiers up the Mississippi. Lake Geneva. Arabia Steamboat Museum. Poster 17" x 22". For A long-awaited new edition of the steamboating classic. Beneath Tennessee River, Steamboat Wreckage Presents Mystery. GRAND TOWER, Ill. (KFVS) - The remains of an old shipwreck have been found in Grand Tower, Ill. due to the Mississippi Rivers low water level. Maintaining a posted schedule was important in the competitive business of steamboat commerce. Aboard the vintage-1890 steamboat replica, amidst the beautiful shorelines of the upper Mississippi River, you can easily imagine days gone by. The boat was loaded with passengers, mostly from Mississippi and Louisiana, headed to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. $30,000 in gold. Elliott, Joseph Taylor. Contains photos of War Eagle and steamer Reindeer. $75,000 in gold coins. The Mississippi River in its original appearance had a seemingly unending series of pools separated by shoals, bars and rapids, with a channel or series of channels between -- much like our larger interior streams today. A recent visit to the locality enables us to give the following account of the situation: In the upper Tallahatchie River, and 120 miles from its mouth at Jarmyns lies the wreck of the Cotton Plant, formerly Flora Temple. Aunt Letty (1855) steam paddle. The first steamboat active on Illinois waters, the "New Orleans," came up the Mississippi in 1811-1812. The great wooden boats that changed the course of commercial history along the Mississippi had a life expectancy of only five years and usually met with an untimely end in sudden fires or sinkings. the 104-mile portion of the Mississippi River in Aitkin County was the first section of any body of water in!Minnesota to be systemicatically surveyed archaelogically using sonar. . The much written about sidewheeler, Effie Afton, may be in the river. 1934 listed 36 types of steamboat wrecks on the Missouri River alone. your own Pins on Pinterest Steamboat Wrecks on the Missouri River. Beginning in 2002, INA, the Oklahoma Historical Society, and Texas A&M University engaged in a joint study of the western steamboat Heroine (A.D. 1832-1838) which sank in the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma.Excavation of the wrecks interior yielded details of the hulls construction and a collection of tools, cargo, machinery, and personal When the Steamboat Monmouth sank in the Mississippi, Creek Indian passengers paid the price. Discover (and save!) The Mississippi was in its high season, and the water was fast and cold. This painting was done by Karl Bodmer on a trip up the Missouri River on the steamboat Yellowstone in 1833. Publisher James T. Lloyds 1856 book Lloyds Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on The loot included many cannon and a fair cargo of brass and copper. THE STEAMBOAT CONSTITUTION.. On the 4th day of May, 1817, while the steamer Constitution was ascending the Mississippi river, and when she was off Point Coupee, the boiler exploded, making the whole front part of the cabin a perfect wreck, and killing or wounding thirty persons, eleven of whom perished instantly. Dec 2, 2014 - This Pin was discovered by Arabia Steamboat Museum. As early as 1836, snags and steamboat wrecks were removed from the rapids at Keokuk and Rock Island. Mere weeks after the Civil War came to an end, the steamboat, Sultana exploded and sank in the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,200 to 1,800 Union soldiers who were released from prison and on their way home. Henry Shreve, a river captain in St. Louis and designer of the Washington, prototype of the classic twin-smokestack Mississippi River steamboat. On December 5, 1901, the boat was launched on the Mississippi River. CHURCH Accident, May 1904; Tyler, MO Steamer ROWENA LEE Explosion, Mar 1899 THE WORST MARITIME DISASTER IN US HISTORY. Find out more about what this space is all about here. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. The Steamboat and Indians of the Upper Missouri MAX E. GERBER The Indians called it the re canoe, a dragon that walked on water. As in most of the South, waterways enormously influenced developments in Mississippi. 1820 1830 April 21, 1838 - Oronoko Most of the passengers were asleep at the time Killed almost everyone either instantly or later from wounds it caused 109 people died 1840 Was traveling to St. Louis when it hit a snag and had By the post-World War II era, screw-propellered, diesel-powered, flat-nosed towboats dotted the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi River Systems that once had hosted the Steamboat Age. The disaster, which occurred near Warsaw, Kentucky, resulted in a significant loss of life and property damage. The invention of the steamboat drastically reduced travel time for Americans in the nineteenth Bridges, shipwrecks, islands, and secret spots on the Mississippi River In the 1800s the Ohio River was a bustling thoroughfare linking towns and growing cities all along the Ohio, the Allegheny and the Monongahela. The Arabia Steamboat Museum is built around the remarkable archaeological discovery of the 1853 paddle-wheeler, which sank into the soft mud of the Missouri in 1856 and was rediscovered in 1987. The American Queen steamboat rests at the Baton Rouge city dock, while other vessels search the waters of the Mississippi River just south of the I-10 bridge just before noon, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. River commerce had been revolutionised by Fultons development and the first steamboat to take to the choppy waters of the Great River was the New Orleans in January 1812. Appendix A List of Steamboats on the Upper Mississippi River, 1823-1863. A recent visit to the locality enables us to give the following account of the situation: In the upper Tallahatchie River, and 120 miles from its mouth at Jarmyns lies the wreck of the Cotton Plant, formerly Flora Temple. The trains weight on the bridge contributed to the accident on the morning of July 27. The watery graveyards reflect bygone days when steamboats ruled, swelling from just a few on the Mississippi around 1815 to the more than 700 that regularly rolled on the river by 1860. It was a few years further into the 19th century that the revolution upon the Mississippi occurred. All the examined boat wrecks were working vessels, towboats or barges, so the artifacts and other data gave a glimpse into the lives of river men on the Mississippi around the turn of the 20 th century. The "North Alabama" was stopped immediately and sank. Remains were raised from the river in 2007. James Copelands Hidden Barrels of Gold. James Copelands Hidden Barrels of Gold. Dutch river steam-tugboat Mascotte II. Steamboats proved a popular method of commercial and passenger transportation along the Mississippi River and other inland U.S. rivers in the 19th century. It was late April 1865 and more than 2,000 tired, sick, and injured men, wearing dirty and tattered clothes, filed down the bluff from Vicksburg to a steamboat waiting at the docks on the Mississippi River. In the early hours of April 27th, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. The Pearl drains [] Little Hocking (Ohio) Steamboat accidents: 1917 April 6: 2004-036 II-M-6, Box 1, Item 73 : View Full Citation: 2, a stern-wheel steamboat. Daniel Jackson / May 29, 2021. REESE went up the Arkansas River to clear away wrecks of boats destroyed by Confederates in the Civil War. Unknown. Probably the most interesting of the wrecks are Vessel No. Its estimated between 300 and 400 boats have sunk along the Missouri River. Opposite of Ligon's Point, 35 miles South of Natchez, the sidewheeler Chalmette, the last of a fleet of St. Louis liners, sunk in the Mississippi River after striking a snag. (Bragg. Commerce, MO Steamboat "HARRY OF THE WEST" Accident, Apr 1843; St. Louis, MO City and 23 Steamboats Burn, May 1849; Cape Girardeau, MO Steamboat TALISMAN Sinking, Nov 1847; St. Louis, MO Steamer ALONZO O. Admiral. The boat was totally submerged and will prove a total loss. Poster: Shows location of 31 steamboat sinkings on Mississippi River between Trempealeau, WI and Victory, WI (many boats were recovered and refitted). The Mississippi River gave birth to most cities along its banks, and those cities did all they could to ensure that the river would nurture their growth. LEARN MORE. Somewhere near Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Image of the steamboat "Red Cloud" on the Missouri (NSHS RG2593.PH0-000021) (left). This book provides a detailed history of the steamboat Sprague, a steamboat built for towing on the Mississippi River. Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing at least 1,547 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history.. Steamboat traffic was far heavier on the Mississippi, but traffic there was and is less susceptible to river debris. Steamboat "Tell City" wreck, Ohio River. About 15 people were reported to have been killed in the accident. [A drawing in Braggs book shows the approximate position in the Mississippi, nearer to the Kentucky shore than to the Missouri side, and closer to New Madrid than to Island 11.] Updated: Sep. 30, 2020 at 3:39 PM PDT. On what used to be the bottom of the disappearing Mississippi River, a sunken treasure lies exposed under the cruel, hot sun. She had left St. Louis on July 8, four days after the surrender of Vicksburg to General Grant. Disaster. The body of water it does have access to is the Mississippi River System and its tributaries, namely the Missouri River. The steamer was carrying hundreds of people and, allegedly, $75,000 in gold. The boat was dismantled for scrap metal starting in 2011. . Illustrations, Series 1, Volume 26: Wreck of the United States Steamer Indianola, Frontispiece Sketch of Red River from Fort De Russy to the Raft, p. 26 Historical Marker #720 in Gallatin County notes the tragic steamboat collision between the "America" and the "United States" on the Ohio River in 1868. 1868 Steamboat Disaster on The Ohio River. Steamboat wrecks have provided authorized divers with a steady stream of antiques, relics and personal belongings. The east bank of the Mississippi River, about 30 miles south of Natchez, Mississippi. In 1856, the Steamboat Arabia was frontier bound, loaded with supplies for 16 towns.With two hundred tons of precious cargo aboard, it left Kansas up the Missouri river on a routine trip, but waiting silently at the waters surface, lost in the glare of the setting sun, was the thick trunk of a huge, fallen walnut tree lying directly in the path of the approaching steamboat. "The Missouri River was notorious for eating boats," Capt. Built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1832, the steamboat Heroine plied the Ohio and Mississippi from its launch in that year until in 1838 a navigation disaster left it beneath the waters of the Red River. From Wikipedia: . On what used to be the bottom of the disappearing Mississippi River, a sunken treasure lies exposed under the cruel, hot sun. Another boat is just behind them. Here is an image of a typical steamboat found on the Missouri River in the 1870s. On March 13, 1863, it was burned either by accident or to keep it out of Union hands at Honey Island. Boiler explosions, lightning strikes and accidents also sunk many a Natchez VIII On October 18, 2014, the Belle of Louisville became the first Mississippi River-style steamboat to reach 100 years old. George Byron Merrick chronicles the entire panorama of steamboat life he experienced in the mid-1800s, where he started as a cabin boy and worked up to cub pilot on the mighty Mississippi. Link copied. 1977, p. Any seagoing vessel drawing energy from a steam-powered engine can be called a steamboat. Their relative speed and ability to travel against the current reduced time and expense. A whistle, made from brass, was later put on the C.B. Elsewhere, rivers such as the Big Black, Pascagoula, Pearl, Tennessee, and Tombigbee and the interconnected streams that form the Yazoo River system played The William J. Lewis, built in Metropolis in 1867, made two trips along the treacherous 2,000-mile stretch of Missouri River between St. Louis and Fort Benton, Montana, carrying military items and household goods. Boiler explosions, lightning strikes and accidents also sunk many a and sunken wrecks which in the olden time beset the navigator from New Orleans to St. Paul. In 1906 the C.B. The steamer registered MALTA BEND, Mo. In the following compilation I have endeavored to give as complete a history as possible of every boat making one or more trips on the upper Mississippi Riverthat is to say, above the upper rapidsprior to 1863, not counting boats engaged exclusively in the rafting business. An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. On April 27, 1865, a steamboat named the Sultana exploded and sank while transporting Union soldiers up the Mississippi. There were many steamboat landings on the Mississippi River, including one on 94, is located in Issaquena County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi River . Lookout, transport steamer on the Tennessee River, c. 1860-1865. On the eighth of January, 1845, the steamboat Belle Zane, while on her way from Zanesville, Ohio, to New Orleans, struck a snag in the Mississippi, about twelve miles below the mouth of White river, and immediately turned bottom upward ! The Nebraska State Historical Society holds a number of great resources of inform ation about steamboat travel and navigation. A heavy traffic soon carried passengers and freight to the lead-mining center of Galena in the northwest corner of Illinois. Dec 2, 2014 - This Pin was discovered by Arabia Steamboat Museum. Theres something about sitting on the deck and just watching the water go by its mesmerizing and relaxing, said Captain Kevin Stier. By Cecil Meares The 1837 Monmouth disaster on the Mississippi River depicted in a 1998 watercolor by Paul Bender. Shows the "Queen of the West" and the "Morning Star" racing. Description of a steamboat accident in the Mississippi River near New Orleans. On Oct. 27, 1870 a steamboat carrying winter provisions to military posts and settlements on the upper Missouri River struck a "snag" - a partially submerged log protruding out of the mud on the river bottom. Cost $8 for poster plus $3.50 postage (U.S.). The log pierced the hull, creating a gash 2-feet wide and 8-feet long. Published in 1914. When the Princess pulled up to the wharf in Baton Rouge early on the morning of February 27, 1859, it was already late. Her career included rescue work during the 1927 Flood, defense work during World War II, and a starring role in the 1950 movie Showboat. steamboat explosion on the mississippi river. Once the driving force of the southeast Tennessee citys economic growth, Chattanoogas riverfront is home to just the 10th shipwreck recorded in state history a boat whose story time forgot. Almost all were Union soldiers who had REESE and stayed with her until her end. On July 16, 1863, the steamboat IMPERIAL arrived in New Orleans from St. Louis, marking the opening of the Mississippi River in the closing stages of the Civil War, following the cessation of river traffic in 1861. In the winter months of 1987-88, a salvage company uncovered the buried remains of the nineteenth-century steamboat Missouri Packet. Mississippi River. One of the most intriguing of these stories is that of the Steamboat Arabia, which sank in September 1856 and became a part of local folklore. Early western river navigation was always dangerous, but it was a necessity in order to ship supplies to U.S. Army frontier posts and civilian settlements. Brian Gevik. . your own Pins on Pinterest Steamboat Wrecks on the Missouri River. Constructed of wood in 1863 by the John Litherbury Boatyard in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sultana was intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. Wolf River. Disaster. . . The first steamboat on the Mississippi River along Iowas border was the 109-ton Virginia, on its way to Fort Snelling (now Saint Paul, Minnesota) in May 1823. Maintaining a posted schedule was important in the competitive business of steamboat commerce. The ship was briefly re-purposed as an amusement center in 1987 and converted to a casino in 1990. Catahoula swamp in Hancock County Mississippi. The American Queen steamboat rests at the Baton Rouge city dock, while other vessels search the waters of the Mississippi River just south of the I-10 bridge just before noon, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Discover (and save!) "The average lifespan of a newly built steamboat back in Sam Clemens [Mark Twain's] era was two years.
