Fifty Years In The Northwest
liberal policy in the distribution of improvements, and favoring every
meritorious project for the increase of facilities for water
transportation, but recommending as a subject of paramount importance
the immediate and permanent improvement of the Mississippi and
Missouri rivers and their navigable tributaries. It was recommended
that the depth of the Mississippi be increased to six feet between
Cario and the falls of St. Anthony. The Hennepin canal was strongly
indorsed, as was also the improvement of the Sault Ste. Marie, and of
the navigation of Wisconsin and Fox rivers, of the Red River of the
North, and of the Chippewa, St. Croix and Minnesota rivers. The
convention unanimously recommended as a sum proper for these
improvements the appropriation of $25,000,000.
Some of the papers presented were elaborately prepared, and deserve to
be placed on permanent record. The memorial of Mr. E. W. Durant, of
Stillwater, contains many valuable statistics. We quote that portion
containing a statement of the resources and commerce of the valleys of
the Mississippi and St. Croix:
"The Northwestern States have not had the recognition that is due to
the agricultural and commercial requirements of this vast and poplous
territory, whose granaries and fields not only feed the millions of
this continent, but whose annual export constitutes a most important
factor in the food calculation of foreign nations. During the past
decade the general government has expended $3,000,000 on the waterways
of the Upper Mississippi. The improvements inaugurated by the general
government in removing many of the serious impediments to navigation
warrants the belief that still more extensive improvements should be
made. It is an error to suppose that the palmy days of steamboating on
western rivers has passed. In demonstration of this take the quantity
of lumber sent down the Mississippi. There was shipped from the St.
Croix river during the year 1884 to various distributing points along
the Mississippi river 250,000,000 feet of lumber, 40,000,000 of lath,
37,000,000 of shingles, 2,000,000 of pickets; from the Chippewa river
during the same period, 883,000,000 feet of lumber, 223,000,000 of
shingles and 102,000,000 of lath and pickets; from Black river during
the same period was shipped 250,000,000 feet of lumber, 40,000,000
shingles, and 32,000,000 lath and pickets, aggregating 1,383,000,000
feet of lumber, 300,000,000 of shingles and 176,000,000 of lath. The
tonnage of this product alone foots up over 3,000,000 tons. The lumber
value of raft and cargoes annually floated to market on the
Mississippi will not vary far from $20,000,000. The capital invested
in steamboats, 100 in number, used for towing purposes is $1,250,000;
while the saw mills, timber plants and other investments incidental to
the prosecution of this branch of industry will foot up fully
$500,000; while the labor and their dependences engaged in this
pursuit alone will equal the population of one of our largest western
states. There are sixteen bridges spanning the river between St. Paul
and St. Louis, and it is important that some additional safeguards be
thrown around these bridges to afford greater safety to river
commerce."
Mr. Durant says there has been a general cry for some time past that
the days of steamboating on the Northern Mississippi and tributaries
were over; but he thinks it will be forcibly shown in the coming
convention that, if they are, the only cause for it is the extremely
short and uncertain seasons for steamboating, resulting from the
neglected and filled up channels. If the channels can be improved, so
that steamers can be sure of five months' good running each year, he
thinks they will prove to be one of the most important means of
transportation in the Upper Mississippi valley. They will then be used
for the transportation up and down stream of all heavy and slow
freights in preference to railroads, on account of cheapness. It would
prove a new and the greatest era in upper river steamboating.
It appears from a report made at the convention, that during the year
1884 there were 175 steamboats plying on the Mississippi from St.
Louis to points above. Two thousand seven hundred rafts from the St.
Croix and Chippewa passed the Winona bridge, and the total number of
feet of logs and lumber floated down the Mississippi from the St.
Croix, Chippewa and Black rivers was 1,366,000,000. The total
passages of steamers through the Winona bridge for 1887 was 4,492. On
the St. Croix, above Lake St. Croix, during the season of 1887 there
were 3 steamers and 25 barges engaged in freight and passenger traffic
only. The steamers made 141 round trips between Stillwater and
Taylor's Falls, 75 round trips between Marine and St. Paul, and 20
round trips between Franconia and St. Paul.
The following is a showing of the lumber, logs, rafting, and towing
business on the St. Croix during 1887: There were 51 steamers engaged
in towing logs and lumber out of the St. Croix and down the
Mississippi, the total number of feet handled by them being
250,000,000, board measure: The total number of feet of logs (board
measure) which passed through the St. Croix boom in 1887 was
325,000,000. The lumber manufacture of the St. Croix during that year
was valued at $2,393,323.
RESOLUTION INTRODUCED AT THE WATERWAYS CONVENTION HELD IN ST. PAUL,
SEPTEMBER, 1885.
WHEREAS, The North American continent is penetrated by two great water
systems both of which originate upon the tablelands of Minnesota, one
the Mississippi river and its tributaries, reaching southward from the
British line to the Gulf of Mexico, watering the greatest body of
fertile land on the globe,--the future seat of empire of the human
family on earth,--the other the chain of great lakes flowing
eastwardly and constituting with the St. Lawrence river a great water
causeway in the direct line of the flow of the world's commerce from
the heart of the continent to the Atlantic; and
WHEREAS, Between the navigable waters of these continental dividing
systems there is but a gap of ninety miles in width from Taylor's
Falls on the St. Croix, to Duluth on Lake Superior, through a region
of easily worked drift formation, with a rise of but five hundred and
sixty feet to overcome, and plentifully supplied with water from the
highest point of the water-shed; therefore,
_Resolved_. That we demand of Congress the construction of a canal
from Taylor's Falls to Duluth, using the Upper St. Croix and the St.
Louis rivers as far as the same can be made navigable, the said canal
to be forever free of toll or charge, and to remain a public highway
for the interchange of the productions of the Mississippi valley and
the valley of the great lakes; and should the railway interests of the
country prove powerful enough to prevent congressional action to this
end, we call upon the states of the Northwest to unite and build, at
their own cost, such a canal, believing that the increased value of
the productions of the country would speedily repay the entire outlay.
EARLY STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION.
The Pennsylvania was the first steamer that descended the Mississippi.
She came down the Ohio from Pittsburgh, creating the utmost terror in
the minds of the simple-hearted people who had lately been rather
rudely shaken by an earthquake, and supposed the noise of the coming
steamer to be but the precursor of another shake. When the
Pennsylvania approached Shawneetown, Illinois, the people crowded the
river shore, and in their alarm fell down upon their knees and prayed
to be delivered from the muttering, roaring earthquake coming down the
river, its furnaces glowing like the open portals of the nether world.
Many fled to the hills in utter dismay at the frightful appearance of
the hitherto unknown monster, and the dismal sounds it emitted. It
produced the same and even greater terror in the scant settlements of
the Lower Mississippi.
In 1823 Capt. Shreve commanded the Gen. Washington, the fastest boat
that had as yet traversed the western rivers. This year the Gen.
Washington made the trip from New Orleans to Louisville, Kentucky, in
twenty-five days. When at Louisville he anchored his boat in the
middle of the river and fired twenty-five guns in honor of the event,
one for each day out. The population of Louisville feted and honored
the gallant captain for his achievement. He was crowned with flowers,
and borne through the streets by the huzzaing crowd. A rich banquet
was spread, and amidst the hilarity excited by the flowing bowl, the
captain made an eloquent speech which was vociferously applauded. He
declared that the time made by the Gen. Washington could never be
equaled by any other boat. Curiously enough, some later in the season,
the Tecumseh made the trip in nine days. The time made by the Tecumseh
was not beaten until 1833, when the Shepherdess carried away the
laurels for speed.
We have but little definite information as to navigation on the
Mississippi during the ten years subsequent to the trip of the
Pennsylvania. The solitude of the Upper Mississippi was unbroken by
the advent of any steamer until the year 1823. On the second of May in
that year the Virginia, a steamer 118 feet in length, 22 in width,
with a draught of 6 feet, left her moorings at St. Louis levee for
Fort Snelling laden with stores for the fort. She was four days
passing the Rock Island rapids, and made but slow progress throughout.
It is heedless to say that the Indians were as much frightened at the
appearance of the "fire canoe" as the settlers of the Ohio valley had
been, and made quick time escaping to the hills.
Judge James H. Lockwood narrates (see Vol. II, Wisconsin Historical
Collections, page 152) that in 1824 Capt. David G. Bates brought a
small boat named the Putnam up to Prairie du Chien, and took it thence
to Fort Snelling with supplies for the troops. The steamer Neville
also made the voyage to Prairie du Chien in 1824. The following year
came the steamer Mandan and in 1826 the Indiana and Lawrence. Fletcher
Williams, in his history of St. Paul, says that from 1823 to 1826 as
many as fifteen steamers had arrived at Fort Snelling, and that
afterward their arrivals were more frequent.
During this primitive period, the steamboats had no regular time for
arrival and departure at ports. A time table would have been an
absurdity. "Go as you please" or "go as you can," was the order of the
day. Passengers had rare opportunities for observation and discovery,
and were frequently allowed pleasure excursions on shore while the
boat was being cordelled over a rapid, was stranded on a bar, or
waiting for wood to be cut and carried on board at some wooding
station. Sometimes they were called upon to lend a helping hand at the
capstan, or to tread the gang plank to a "wood up" quickstep. When on
their pleasure excursion they strayed away too far, they were recalled
to the boat by the firing of a gun or the ringing of a bell. It is
doubtful if in later days, with all the improvements in steamboat
travel, more enjoyable voyages have been made than these free and easy
excursions in the light draught boats of the decades between 1830 and
1850, under such genial captains and officers as the Harrises,
Atchinson, Throckmorton, Brasie, Ward, Blakeley, Lodwick, Munford,
Pim, Orrin Smith and others.
Before the government had improved navigation the rapids of Rock
Island and Des Moines, and snags, rocks and sandbars elsewhere were
serious obstructions. The passengers endured the necessary delays from
these causes with great good nature, and the tedium of the voyage was
frequently enlivened by boat races with rival steamers. These
passenger boats were then liberally patronized. The cost of a trip