Steamboats

Steamboats on the Missouri were known as Mountain Boats because they could travel close to the river’s headwaters at the Rocky Mountains. Unlike steamboats on the Mississippi River, Missouri River boats were built for narrow, shallow channels, with stern wheels and pine decking and bulkheads instead of oak to reduce weight. Most drew about 20 inches of water when empty and up to 4 feet when loaded. Leadsmen called out river depth with terms such as "Mark Twain" for 12 feet, or two fathoms, along with expressions like Quarter Less Twain, Half Twain, and Mark Three. Navigation was hazardous because "sawyers," also called "snags," were trees or parts of trees projecting slightly above the water, and collisions with them sank hundreds of steamboats on the Missouri. A river pilot said that the mouth of the Missouri separated the men from the boys, with the boys going up the Mississippi and the men up the Big Muddy. In Dakota Territory, most steamboat traffic was tied to the fur trade, the military, and mining. After the railroad arrived in the late 1870s, its cheaper and more reliable movement of goods brought the steamboat era to an end, though smaller steamboats continued for many years in short hauls and ferry service.

South Dakota · United States