History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Volume 2 (of 2) / Life and Adventures of Joseph La Barge

by Hiram Martin Chittenden

The great enemy of the Missouri River steamboat was the railroad. The impression now exists that the river has ceased to be a navigable stream. It has ceased to be a navigated stream, but it is as navigable as it ever was. Let it be known that all railroads in its valley will cease running for a period of five years and there will be a thousand boats on the river in less than six months. It is not a change in the stream, but in methods of transportation, that has ruined the commerce of the river.

ADVANCE OF THE RAILROADS.

The struggle between the steamboat and the railroad lasted just about twenty-eight years, or from 1859—when the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad reached St. Joseph, Mo.—to 1887, when the Great Northern reached Helena, Mont. The influence of the railroads had been felt to some extent before this on the lower river. The Missouri Pacific railroad, which parallels the river from St. Louis to Kansas City, was opened to Jefferson City, March 13, 1856, but did not reach Kansas City until ten years later. This road did not have much effect upon the steamboat business of the river. Most of the boats ran far beyond the points reached by the road, and would have kept on the river whether the railroad were there or not. Being there, they secured a large part of the freight, even along the line of the railroad.

When the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad reached the Missouri River at St. Joseph in 1859, that town became an important terminus for river commerce connected with the railroad. A line of packets including three boats ran south to Kansas City and north to Sioux City, with an occasional trip to Fort Randall. The first service of Captain La Barge’s boat, the Emilie, was in this trade, in which he remained for two years.

The next point on the river reached by the railroads was at Council Bluffs and Omaha. On the 15th of March, 1867, the Chicago and Northwestern railroad reached the former place and on March 15, 1872, the Union Pacific bridge was opened across the river. Omaha largely supplanted St. Joseph in the upper river trade, and still further restricted the business from St. Louis.

The Sioux City and Pacific railroad entered Sioux City in 1868 from Missouri Valley, thus connecting with Omaha and Chicago. In 1870 the Illinois Central reached the same place directly across the State. Sioux City became, and for a long time remained, a more important river port than either St. Joseph or Omaha. All during the period of the Indian wars, in the decade from 1870 to 1880 it was the great shipping point for the army in all its work on the upper river. Even the trade to Fort Benton was in great part transferred to this point, and the St. Louis trade with that port suffered another severe falling off.

FINISHING BLOWS.

And now its bold antagonist attacked the steamboat business on every side. The Union Pacific railroad was opened to Ogden in 1869, and a freight line was at once established through to Helena, thus diverting south a large part of the business which had before gone to the river. In 1872 the Northern Pacific reached Bismarck, and cut off nearly all the upper river trade from Sioux City. In 1880 the Utah Northern entered Montana from Ogden and captured a large share of the trade of that Territory. In 1883 the Northern Pacific reached the valley of the Upper Missouri, and virtually controlled all the business that had hitherto gone to the Missouri River except the small proportion which originated at Fort Benton and below to Bismarck. The final blow was delivered to the river trade in 1887, when the Great Northern reached Helena.

DOOM OF OLD FORT BENTON.

This was practically the end of the steamboat business on the Missouri River, and the doom of old Fort Benton. A new town arose at the Great Falls, under the fostering care of the railroad, absorbed most of the former trade of Fort Benton, and grew into one of the largest towns of the State. Fort Benton dropped rapidly into a condition of decadence from which it has never recovered. In the meanwhile all the regular steamboat owners withdrew from the river except the Benton Transportation Company, which has maintained to the present day a very small fleet of boats at Bismarck, N. D. It was a sad day for the marine insurance companies when the fate of the river commerce was settled by the railroads. Accidents occurred with astonishing certainty whenever it was found that boats were no longer needed; and it was left to the underwriters to close up the final account of this record of disaster.