| Goin' West.....by Way of the River Grounded! These pictures are large and will take awhile to download if you are using a dial-up modem. In the year 1858 alone, forty-seven steamboats on western rivers sank, nineteen burned up and nine exploded. Rivers such as the Missouri are graveyards for untold numbers of steamers. |
| The Benton, after her third wreck in 1897. She ran into submerged pilings near a drawbridge, careened out of control and slammed into the bridge and drifted to her final rest not far downriver. |
| Crushed against the St. Louis levee by ice floating down river, steamers gradually crumble into ruin in a disaster that continued through the winter of 1865-1866. Twenty-one steamboats were destroyed in all. |
| One of the largest stern-wheelers, The Montana, at the Bismarck levee after a storm in 1879. She was repaired and sailed five more years before her second and fatal mishap (see below). |
| The Montana rests on the bottom of the shallow river at St. Charles, Missouri in 1884, after the current forced her against the supports of a railroad bridge. |
By Way of the River Index Steamboats Flatboats On the Shore
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