Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West: History, Excavation, and Architecture

6. Epilogue

6. Epilogue •• Archaeologists are trained to look at artifacts for what they can tell us about the cultures that produced them. Combined with history, archaeological analysis helps form and sharpen insights into regions and cultures, into what it was like to live in a place during any given time period.Such insight is not necessarily possible when history and archaeology stand alone. Viewed as an artifact, Montana is the proverbial diamond in the rough. Its structure reveals both the obvious and the obscure and, interpreted in concert with historical sources, gives us a clearer view of our population’s westward expansion—an expansion driven by technology, profit motive, and entrepreneurial spirit. From this perspective, Montana is more than the sum of her parts.A close examination of her constituents is the first step in cutting and polishing the diamond to reflect light. The identity of the steamer, initially based on its enormous size, was an unexpected archaeological bonus, for it set both a terminus ante quem and a terminus post quem—an exact time frame for the ship’s life. Later archaeological verification of the ship’s identity involved comparison of the vessel’s historically recorded dimensions against those of its wreck. The fact that the bow section is missing corroborates historically documented salvage attempts . Circumstantial evidence supporting the identity of the steamer as Montana includes diagnostic artifacts of the same time period, the fact that the wrecked ship was, like the Montana, a stern-wheeler, and finally the fact that the actual wreck is located within the described historical location of the wrecking event. Montana’s positive identity sets three important baselines. First, it prescribes a definitive date for the technology displayed in her hull (figure 49). Second, the importance of the Montana virtually ensures that 112 Epilogue · 113 the wreck represents the best technology available at the time. And third, it allows researchers to vigorously search historic archives for primary documents relating to this specific vessel. Positively identifying a shipwreck by name is a fairly unusual occurrence in nautical archaeology and not always a primary consideration for researchers . Countless vessels have sunk over time—ships deemed unworthy of mention and historically undocumented or ships recorded in legal or personal documents that have also disappeared over time. Merchant ships, coasting work vessels, and inland work boats are analogous in many ways to semitrailer trucks or train boxcars; if one is lost or wears out, another soon takes its place and the work continues. Therefore, most wreck sites remain anonymous , but scientists view them as representative of a time period or culture. A site’s archaeological worth lies more in the revelations of its closely dated artifacts than in an added and often fruitless attempt to name it. The second baseline established with a positive identification of the Mon­ tana is the certainty that this unusual and important ship represents the latest steamboat technology of her day. Identifying the exact date of a site is important to an archaeologist, because artifacts represent waypoints in typological and technical evolution, waypoints that point to refinements in efficiency , structure, and manufacture over time. These changes, set within a typological framework, give us an evolutionary timeline. The typologies provide comparative examples so that other unidentified artifacts can be dated figure 49. Montana during salvage, 1884. (St. Louis Public Library, Special Collections.) through comparison.The two most valuable archaeological waypoints in any artifact typology are the end points—represented by the earliest and then by the most refined examples of an artifact. Montana represents the most advanced vessel of her kind,a perfect terminus post quem for late-nineteenthcentury western riverboat technology (figure 50). The third and perhaps greatest benefit of knowing that this wreckage represents the Montana is that it keys in an entire battery of specific historical sources. Rich historical sources such as those found to describe the life and times of the Montana were used to construct the vessel’s general history while archaeology was used to match, verify, and add to the historic record. Shipping and selling goods on the American frontier was big business, spawned and fueled by continual change and a remarkable drive to forcibly change a natural environment. At the turn of the nineteenth century, eastern politicians were pushing for American expansion and domination of a vast “empty” American West. Coined “manifest destiny” in many national newspapers, the drive West was ignited, in part, by the...