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  • The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce by Ronald R. Switzer
  • Vergil E. Noble
The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce. By Ronald R. Switzer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. 376 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, index. $45.00 cloth.

On April 1, 1865, the steamboat Bertrand hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank some twenty miles above Omaha. Upbound from St. Louis, the Bertrand was fully loaded with supplies destined for the Montana Territory boomtowns of Deer Lodge, Virginia City, Hell Gate, and Fort Benton. Lost for over 100 years, the hull was discovered in 1968 embedded next to an oxbow lake in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri Valley, Iowa. The remains of the Bertrand were then excavated by National Park Service archaeologists under the direction of Jerome E. Petsche. A huge trove of more than 300,000 artifacts was recovered from the hold.

Ronald R. Switzer was assigned the task of conserving and curating the vast collection as it came out of the ground, keeping copious notes all the while. He would write several articles on various artifact classes in the years immediately following the excavations and publish a book-length analysis of the bottles in 1974 (The Bertrand Bottles: A Study of 19th-Century Glass and Ceramic Containers). In that same year, Petsche published a detailed site report, The Steamboat Bertrand: History, Excavation, and Architecture (National Park Service). Both men, however, would continue to research various aspects of the Bertrand over the next several decades, and in Switzer’s new book he draws upon their extensive files to present a more comprehensive view of the steamboat and the times in which it plied the waters of the Missouri.

The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce [End Page 186] begins with a chapter describing construction of the vessel in Wheeling, West Virginia, and how it came to be put into service at St. Louis. Switzer then discusses the economics of Missouri River steamboat trade, particularly following the 1862 Montana gold rush. Chapter 3 tells the story of the wreck and its immediate aftermath. In chapter 4, Switzer provides biographical sketches of the Bertrand’s officers, crew, and passengers, and in the next chapter he reviews what is known of the seven consignees of the upper Missouri River who were to take delivery of the hold’s contents.

While a great deal of interesting information is presented in the first five chapters, it is chapter 6, “The Cargo,” that will fascinate most readers, especially those interested in the history of technology and mid-nineteenth-century material culture. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Switzer describes most of the collection with abundant facts on the commodities and their manufacturers. This chapter shows that, thanks to steamboats, residents in the remote Montana gold fields had access to diverse goods and were part of a wide-reaching commercial sphere that included major markets of the East and beyond to England and continental Europe.

Switzer concludes with a brief chapter on the demise of steamboat commerce, but the book should not be considered the definitive last word on the Bertrand. Indeed, he points out several areas of productive research that might be undertaken by others. I hope that the wealth of data in this excellent publication will inspire renewed interest in this impressive collection.

Vergil E. Noble
Midwest Archeological Center
National Park Service Lincoln, Nebraska
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