In This Newsletter:

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  Quote of the Week

“Never judge a book by its cover.” - or something like that.

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  A Personal Note From Jack

I have resurrected that old bromide (the quote above) because I want to tell you about a book for which I think several different titles would have been appropriate.

Also, I want to explain right away that this section is a combination of book promotion and history lesson. It is a history lesson, because the contents of “The Conquest of the Missouri” provide a generous background for understanding how the value of the Missouri River, et al, as transportation highways were searched out and developed to meet the needs of a growing nation. It is the groundwork for the activities of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It explains partially, though indirectly, why we are where we are today in the areas of water resource development.

The background of which I write is important in the sense that, to me at least, it gives good reason for critics to stop hounding the Corps. Both militarily and as it relates to civil works, the Corps has been active for more than 200 years, responding to the will of Congress to meet the needs of people at various times over the decades when river development was crucial. Back in the 1800s our nation was moving westward. But at that time, the Indian nation included everything from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. Trappers, explorers, businessmen, settlers, all saw great hope in the lands occupied by a variety of Indian tribes, and the discover of gold in the Black Hills Dakota only added to the fervor to move west.

To be sure, railroads were pushing west. But in the 1860s progress was slow and often prevented totally by marauding Indians. Where railroads were able to push westward, the demand for steamboat transportation waned. Eventually, before its demise, steamboat transport shifted gears and accommodated more people than freight.

As the Civil War drew to a close, thousands of men decided to try their luck by moving westward along the Missouri. Added to the large number of settlers already having that as their goal, the transportation demands were tremendous. One photograph in “The Conquest of the Missouri” shows the steamboat Nellie Peck at the Benton, N.D., dock, some four years before the Custer Massacre took place. During years prior to the massacre, the military worked to establish forts whereby they could provide some protection for the vast, growing number of settlers in the upper Midwest. Unfortunately, the three trails leading toward the Yellowstone went right through buffalo country, and, also unfortunately, one of the means to help vanquish the Indians was to deprive them of the buffalo herds. Buffalo were wastefully shot from trains for sport, and shooters left the carcasses to rot in the sun.

We already know that Lewis and Clark had discovered the route. And that’s where steamboats came into the picture. One of America’s most famous steamboat captains, Capt. Grant Marsh, was called up by the U.S. Government to move troops and materiel up the Missouri to the Big Horn River when the major campaign was to begin.

“The Conquest of the Missouri” also provides a good background for understanding Missouri River steamboating, and we suspect that with Capt. Marsh as its key figure, along with Missouri River data, the title would be considered appropriate. It is a nonfiction book totally documented. It provides the best history of Custer’s Last Stand that I have ever read. However, I am not a student of history and must confess that the book provides more than 95 percent of what I know about that tragic end to Custer and his men. And there are some eye openers. According to reports by one of the top generals in the Indian campaign, Custer and his men were left out in the open after the battle for more than a year. A contingent of cavalry troops returned to the site to bury the dead and collect more facts. It is not certain that the body of Custer was actually identified, but reports indicate they are pretty sure that it was.

After reading the book, I concluded that they also could have titled it something like “The Great Indian Wars” or “How Steamboats And The Missouri Made The Indian Wars Possible.” A title such as “The Exploits of Capt. Grant Marsh” might even have fit.

Whether you are a history of the Indian wars or are seriously interested in Missouri River navigation, this book will serve your needs and most likely will become permanent in your library. One caution. DO NOT START HIGHLIGHTING IN THE BOOK. I made that mistake. I tell you honestly that my book is more blue than white now. It is a gripping book filled with statistics and presented in a manner by author Joseph Mills Hanson that it is fast moving and enjoyable. There are so many fascinating facts that I underlined them all and now cannot separate them from what certainly is not chaff.

“The Conquest of the Missouri” was first copyrighted in 1909. At that time, the author wrote: “Probably on no river in the United States is the business of steamboating to-day [sic] conducted more efficiently or with more satisfactory results than on that section of the Missouri lying between Bismarck [N.D.] and the mouth of the Yellowstone; an inland waterway long ago abandoned by the government in its river improvement work because it is alleged to be ‘unnavigable.’

“To-day [sic] with public sentiment rapidly crystalizing in favor of deepening the channels and securing the banks of the nation’s inland waterways, such a career may well be studied by those men who would withhold a share in the improvements from the great Missouri on the ground that it is only ‘a graveyard for steamboats.’ Grant Marsh never found it so, other men are skillful at the wheel would not, and, sooner or later, the Missouri will have to be prepared for carrying deeper draught vessels and made an avenue for helping to relieve the freight congestion of a territory whose railroad facilities cannot keep pace with its increasing productiveness.”

How insightful Hanson was! Public sentiment in the Missouri basin has undergone radical change over the last 150 years or so, as we know. And, also as we know, the demands for flood control resulted in moving the head of navigation to Sioux City, Iowa, where it remains today. Those railroads that succeeded in pushing out the steamboat industry more than 100 hears ago now (in 2005) cannot handle the transportation demands.

While railroads cannot keep up with transportation demands, there is little or no possibility of rail expansion, or interstate highway development sufficient to permit trucks to bear the burden. Trucks, despite their value in the transportation picture, are also a source of anger over their role in making highways unsafe and in the area of air pollution.

The pendulum has swung. Not only can water transport fulfill the needs of moving cargoes for which it is most suited and truck and rail are not, but it is environmentally friendly and can do much to improve highway safety and the quality of life for millions of people.

Perhaps if the modern-day critics of the Corps and water resource development would review how we go to where we are today, as development relates to the Missouri basin, they would be a little more sympathetic to the Corps’ role in aiding and abetting economic development. The burden of the Corps is terribly demanding, and the budget provided to finance meeting that burden are insufficient and have been for decades.

Whether one agrees that the westward movement was good or bad, whether one sides with the vanquished Indian nation or has no sympathy for it, these are events swept by the demands of a flexing, growing nation, and they could not be stopped. That is why the Missouri was developed as it was. To abandon such a natural highway would be ludicrous. Transportation demands will soon make that clear over the next few years. Europeans understand the value of waterways and nourish them.

See our “Book Beat” section as it relates to “The Conquest of the Missouri.”

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  For Those Inclined To Pray

Join our Prayer Circle so that you can tap into the prayerful support of the circle members. Membership and prayer requests are open to everyone. The activity of the Prayer Circle is confined totally outside of our weekly newsletter. With the exception of this segment, all contact is made, ultimately, through jacksimpson@littleriverbooks.com. To learn about the prayer circle click here.

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  On The Waterfront

Four Riverway Towboats Go Over To Ingram

According to our boat specialist Dan Owen, who watches these matters closer than most (he is editor of the “Inland River Record” for The Waterways Journal) the Riverway web site indicates that, as of April 1, four boats moved over to Ingram.

They include the Evey T (built in 1974 by Mississippi Marine Towboat Corporation, twin screw, 140 by 38 feet, GM 12-645E7 diesels); Gale C (built in 1973 by St. Louis Ship, triple screw, 200 by 50 feet, GM 12-710G-7B diesels); Hornet (built in 1975 by Halter Marine Service, twin screw, 146 x 38 feet, GM 12-645E7 diesels); and Mary L (built in 1975 by Halter Marine Service, twin screw, 146 by 38 feet, GM 12-645E7 diesels).

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Lack of Snow-Melt, Little Rain Causes Big Concerns Along Big Muddy

(Editor’s note: We are about to get (or are getting) a big history lesson about the Big Muddy, life along that river and the status of navigation on the reach from Sioux City, Iowa, to the Mississippi. Drought, such as that now in its sixth year in the Missouri River Basin, is not new as far as history records it. It’s merely Nature doing her thing. In the days when the westward movement was seeing thousands of people moving in the great Midwest land mass between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, people pretty much had to tough it out. Navigation was easy or difficult as conditions changed, but when it came to floods and flood damage, it was a crap shoot. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time could spell disaster and often did. But we have progressed, haven’t we? We now know how to control the river to some degree. We don’t always win but we can make an impact. Consider also that the activities, now commonplace, that require water. Therefore, a six-year drought is raising havoc in the basin. I will not go into detail about the problems, because many relate to needs involving details that would result in writing overkill. So I have decided to share only some headlines and a few “first words” from stories that express water concerns throughout the Missouri basin.)

Communities Worry Over Water Supply From Missouri

James MacPherson, Associated Press, March 29, 2005

“Bismarck, N.D. - Donita Hale says there is only one thing that will end the bickering that has resulted from unceasing low flows on the Missouri River.

“Rain.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers forecasts runoff for the river basin at more than 30 percent below average, as the region heads into its sixth straight year of drought.

(Editor’s note: According to the Corps, about 20 North Dakota communities draw water from the Missouri River.)

Communities, Corps Talk Drinking Water

Richard Hinton, “Bismarck Tribune”, March 29, 2005

“Missouri River-dependent community officials got their say about past and potential drinking water problems Monday [March 28], but promises of not future interruptions weren’t as free flowing.

“Convened and moderated by North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, the meeting brought together representatives of the [Corps], the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the state Health Department, and officials from almost two dozen communities that depend on river water that’s receding because of the continuing drought….”

(Editor’s note: Fort Yates, Garrison, Mandan and Parshall have been hit by water problems…Stu Cook of the Corps said, “We show 1,797.7 (feet above sea level) at Garrison by the end of the year.” The forecast is the lowest ever.)

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Missouri River Levels Dangerously Low

Steve Urness, KFYR-TV Bismarck [N.D.]

“Low water levels on the Missouri River have a number of local leaders and people who rely on the river for their city water usage concerned about the future.

“Dozens of people attended a meeting [March 28] with representatives of the [Corps] on Monday to express their worries over how the river has dropped to dangerously low levels

“The added cost of extending water intake systems for cities like Parshall, Garrison, and Fort Yates has put a strain on many small city budgets.”

(Editor’s note: At Fort Yates, there is the danger of the river having two channels. The side away from the city is the straightest. If the river follows that channel, the city will have to extend intakes much further.)

Water Concerns

Scott Thorson, KELO-TV, Sioux Falls [S.D.]

“It’s a life source for thousands of people throughout the upper Midwest, providing water to hundreds of communities. Now the Missouri River is hitting all time low levels and the [Corps] says it will drop even lower during the summer.

“That’s bad news for one rural water system. Tri County serves 17 communities in Dewey, Ziebach and Meade counties and there are concerns its pipelines could run dry by August.”

(Editor’s note: Said one area resident: “If we had a fire in Dupree right now, we don’t have any water to fight the fire.”)

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Barging Will Lack Water Downstream From KC

“Kansas City Business Journal”, March 28, 2005

“With only 70 percent of the usual snow pack piled up so far this year in Montana mountains, federal officials expect the Missouri River to have too little water for a full barging season downstream from Kansas City in 2005.

“The [Corps] will have business meetings in several cities in April to discuss its annual operating plan for the river and for the six federal dams upstream from Kansas City that partially determine how much water flows to the city.”

(Editor’s note: The Kansas City meeting will be at 7 p.m. April 13 at the Hilton Kansas City Airport. The Corps said barging will be curtailed between 50 and 61 days this year.)

Release From Gavins Point Raises Missouri River Flow

Associated Press, March 29, 2005

“Yankton (AP) - The [Corps] has increased output from Gavins Point Dam near Yankton despite low levels on the Missouri River.

“Paul Johnston, a spokesman for the Corps in Omaha, said the higher water [was expected to] work its way down to St. Louis by Friday [April1], when the navigation season [was scheduled to open].

(Editor’s afterthought: The Corps will visit Pierre, S.D., and five other cities in April to explain its 2005 operating plan for the Missouri River reservoirs. We have been engaged in Missouri River water wars for decades but most noticeably during times of drought. As it involves navigation, the issue is pretty simple. Towboats can either run or they cannot. But with the stakeholders throughout the Missouri River basin, the problems vary. Presently, a major focus is on communities where they fear the loss of their municipal water supplies. Knowing this should help us to put the determination of these stakeholders in focus. But water for industrial use, et al, is also imperiled. The original stories from which I’ve quote are much longer and are treated very seriously.)

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Michigan City, Ind., Plant To Build Gaming Vessel

It has been reported that Blue Chip Casino LLC has awarded a contract to Jamestown Metal Marine Sales, Inc., to construct a new casino vessel at Blue Chip’s Michigan City, Ind., facility. Blue Chip is a subsidiary of Boyd Gaming.

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It Could Have Been A Disaster, But Things Worked Out Fine

The Mv. Amber Brittany and its crew were cruising down the Ohio River at Louisville, Ky., early on the evening of March 30 with an eight-barge tow when the situation turned almost ugly. One of two wires snapped, allowing the barges to continue down the river at a strange angle. The towboat was unable to control them.

According to “The Courier Journal”, The tow was made up of five empties, believed still to contain vapors from previous cargoes, and three barges that contained gasoline, toluene and natural gas condensate.

Somewhat before 6 p.m., two of the barges scraped the Big Four Bridge, an abandoned railroad bridge upriver from the Clark Memorial Bridge. Just minutes later they scraped the Clark Bridge and some of them got stuck there. (They missed the Kennedy Bridge in between.)

The Coast Guard shut down the Clark Bridge for 90 minutes, and customers at Joe’s Crab Shack left for a short time. Two towboats assisted in removing the barges, which were taken to the Louisville-Portland Canal, where they were inspected by the Coast Guard. (The bridge was reopened about 8 p.m.)

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Spending on Gulf Coast Security To Increase

A Gulf Coast newspaper reports that “Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said funding to secure the nation’s border and infrastructure will increase by 7 percent for 2006.”

In related security news, St. Mary’s, Ga., Coast Guard have introduced their two newest members - the bomb-sniffing dogs Sparky and Ferell.

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Gulf Coast Navigation District and Coast Guard On The Outs!

“The Brownsville Herald” reports that “Relations between the Port Isabel-San Benito Navigation District and U.S. Coast Guard have turned sour.

About a month ago, the Coast Guard fined the district $16,000 for violations under maritime security law that went into effect last summer. A passenger barge visited the port, which upped the level of security required under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002,” the “Herald” reported.

The plot thickened. The fine was finally reduced to $4,500, but the Coast Guard unexpectedly docked a shrimp boat (whose occupants had been taken into custody) at a facility that was condemned. The port director said the Coast Guard never mentioned it. So on March 23 the port commission decided to charge the Coast Guard for electricity, water and other expenses that Coast Guard ships accrue when they dock at the district’s facilities.

Port Director Robert Cornelison said the Coast Guard had not cited the port in his 25 years of employment there. The port normally does not have passenger vessels dock there. When and if they do, a higher level of security regulations kicks in.

Coast Guard spokesman Andrew Kendrick indicated that during emergency situations, the agency could use the port’s facilities but otherwise would have to pay for them.

“We’re concerned with saving lives,” Kendrick said. “That’s first and foremost.”

(Editor’s note: Since homeland security is a learning experience for everyone, including the Coast Guard, we think the agency should cool it. We think the fines are out of line, especially for a port that has done everything it can to be helpful. The fines were related to a lack of warning signs, installation of which was delayed while waiting for the construction of a gate upon which to hang them. The Coast Guard will not discuss the violations. I should think not! They should be a little ashamed for taking such a hard line. Imposition of such fines under such conditions, and an unwillingness to be a good neighbor to the port, makes the Coast Guard seem a little more like an occupying force rather than an agency made up of American citizens whose job it is to protect the freedoms we seem to be losing so rapidly.)

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  Advertising

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  Crossing The Bar

The National Waterways Conference reports that Congressman Tom Bevill, longtime chairman of the House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee and a staunch waterway supporter, died March 28. Funeral services were held March 31 at the First Baptist Church in Jasper, Ala.

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  Our Readers Write

Note: The following is a response to a request by Glenn Hensley of Kirkwood, Mo., for information about an old sunken Becky Thatcher on the St. Louis waterfront:

There was a Becky Thatcher which preceded the Becky (formerly the U.S. Army Corps Of Engineer's steamer Mississippi) at St. Louis. Becky #1 was originally the snagboat C. B. Reese, built in 1879. Later she was converted into a towboat named Wood River and I. A. O'Shaugnessy. She was retired in the 1940s and became a boat harbor at the St. Louis levee. Frank Pierson later owned her and converted her into a bar and restaurant named Becky Thatcher. He replaced the missing stacks and pilothouse.

In March 1965 the boat was "caught out" on the levee when the river took a sudden drop. A rapid rise caused water to flow into open hatches on the deck and the boat sank during the spring flood. She went to pieces and about all that was saved was the pilothouse, which was moved over on the Goldenrod Showboat, whose pilothouse was destroyed in the 1962 fire. The Becky was scrapped and her steel hull was raised to become the landing barge for Becky #2, which Pierson purchased and brought to St. Louis from Hannibal in March of 1966. Becky #2 was at St. Louis until August 1975 when she was sold and moved to Marietta, Ohio.

Hope this is what you needed.

Keith Norrington
New Albany, Ind.

(Editor’s note: It’s right on the money. Glenn is very pleased.)

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Jack,

Enjoying the newsletter immensely.

Ron Richardson
Brandenburg, Ky.
Mile 646 Ohio River

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  Boat Photo Center

This week’s Photo Center contains a minor mystery. The picture of the Craig E. Philip (2) has in the foreground a portion of a structure that we cannot definitely identify. The photographer thought it was what he called “the old C&O fuel stand” at Ohio River Mile 329. His better half thought it was the old Russell, Ky., water filtration structure. At any rate, it is located just below Russell. Anyone able to clarify it for us?

We number fewer additions to the Center this week, but they are interesting. Among them is a reproduction of a photo of the steamboat Nellie Peck, docked at Fort Benton in 1872. It is being printed with permission from Pelican Publishing Company and comes from the book “The Conquest of the Missouri.”

Others include: two of the Craig E. Philip by Hugh Davis; the Tallapoosa, Edwin L. Kennedy, the General Jackson and a mystery boat by Jesse Lybarger; and a picture of the Pamela D pilothouse and upper cabin by C. R. Neale III.

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  Book Beat

I am guilty this week of again trying to explain the importance of “The Conquest of the Missouri” by Joseph Mills Hanson, as it relates navigation on the Missouri River and the role it played in making possible the military campaigns against the Indian nations that once occupied the Midwest from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. In it we learn how navigation was once in vogue all the way to the Yellowstone, and how Capt. Grant Marsh captained the str Far West as it ultimately carried survivors from the battle of the Little Big Horn down river to civilization. Capt. Marsh, who began his career on the Ohio River, was the U.S. Government’s favorite steamboat master for operating during the Indian wars, ferrying men and materiel to the Big Horn, Yellowstone and Powder rivers.

It was on June 6, 1876, that General Custer attacked the Indians…and he, with every officer and man in five companies, were killed. Reno with seven companies fought in intrenched [sic] position three days. Custer had barely more than 200 men whom he led into battle against a Sioux village of more than 4000. It was considered by some to be one of the biggest military blunders of all time. This book does not spell out step by step the details of battle. But it presents a great overview and shows how the tragedy developed. The military has concluded that the Indian campaign of 1876, et al, could not have been possible without use of the steamboat and, not to forget, the skills of Capt. Grant Marsh.

As it relates to navigation, Capt. Marsh served throughout most of the campaign. “The Conquest of the Missouri” lists dozens (if not hundreds) of names of steamboats that served in the area. Among his favorite boats were those that drew only 20 inches of water when loaded. He not only served as master of boats belong to others but owned boats himself. Many deeper draft boats could not go where Capt. Marsh took his. He was connected to river activity till in his mid-seventies.

It is interesting to note that the book, reprinted by Pelican Publishing Co. from a 1946 copyright edition published by Rhinehart & Co., Inc. The book had first been copyrighted by A. C. McClurg in 1909 and then again in 1931. The 1946 edition contains an introduction (to what it describes as the Murray Hill edition) by Capt. Donald T. Wright, editor of The Waterways Journal (dated January 9. 1946). Capt. Wright did not personally know Capt. Marsh and was born too late to travel up the far reaches of the Missouri, he did travel to Fort Peck Dam by rail, about 1,950 miles above the Missouri’s mouth, to prepare a series of articles about the voyage of the John Ordway. The Army Corps of Engineers had all but completed a great earthen dam across the Missouri in Montana, and the John Ordway was idle. As Capt. Wright explains, “Other Army Engineers, charged with creating a navigable channel in the lower stretches of the river, concluded they could use this craft.” (The WJ is the same publication for which I have worked 30 years, 22 as editor and eight plus as a contributing editor.)

This is a surprisingly inexpensive book considering its contents. Its pages number 458 and it has some great old illustrations. We sell it for $12.95 plus S&H.

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  Tow Talkin'



April 4, 2005

By Kathy Flippo

March 29th was a rather interesting day. On my way to do errands I noticed an extra boat at ARTCO's dock at the foot of 3rd Street just three blocks from our house. Didn't have to see the name board to know who she was because her shape and color gave her away. It was Alter's Mv. Phyllis. This is one of those Dravo boats built at Neville Island, Pennsylvania. Just like Indiana, one doesn't normally think of Pennsylvania being in the boat-building business. Just like people on either coast aren't sure where Iowa is, except that it's somewhere "down there" when they are flying cross-country.

On my way up to the post office I noticed that the drawbridge was opening, so I made a slight detour of one block and drove up on the dike to see what was happening. Just one glance down through the opening and I knew who was coming up. That retractable pilothouse in Alter's colors is a dead give away that the Mv. Reggie G was northbound. When she got closer…to continue reading this column, click here.


See you on the Web,


Jack
Little River Books
jacksimpson@littleriverbooks.com
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