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

2. The Wild West: Historical Setting

2. The Wild West Historical Setting •• There is no chapter in United States history as uniquely American as the settling of the western territories.Unlike eastern states,which developed primarily under European influence,western lands were the first true colonies of the United States.By the end of the nineteenth century,the Mississippi River became the center, rather than the frontier, of the country. It was, however, the Missouri River—stretching nearly 2,341 miles (3,767 km) from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Rocky Mountain foothills—that created a natural riverine highway to the west from the Mississippi.2 The Mississippi-to-Missouri river route held a strong advantage over westward transportation overland,but the sinuous course and fast current of the Missouri prevented any substantial use of sail-powered vessels. Not until the advent of steamships would watercraft on the Missouri River progress beyond the simple poled or paddled boats of the fur trade. When steamboats appeared on the Missouri in the early nineteenth century, competition increased as business rivals fought over the potential markets and revenue offered by the new country. Steamboats were a means to exploit the new opportunities along the Missouri. The number of steamers on the Missouri rose quickly as did the risks and rewards for those who owned them. The first steamboat on the Missouri River was the Independence, which traveled over 200 miles (321.9 km) above St. Louis in 1819. Later that same year, the U.S. government slated four steamboats to establish a post near the mouth of the Yellowstone River. The ambitious Yellowstone Expedition, however, was eventually comprised of only one successful vessel, the West­  ern Engineer, built with a draft shallow enough to navigate the Missouri. Problems encountered by the expedition were compounded in the attempt to navigate during the low-water season. The Western Engineer was not able to fully complete its maiden journey. Many of the early failures to navigate the Missouri resulted from hull designs suited to the deeper water of the Mississippi River rather than the shallow conditions of the Missouri.3 For the next twenty years,the lower Missouri (St.Louis to Council Bluffs) witnessed a sputtering increase in steamboat traffic, which resulted in a small number of regular packets running between St. Louis and St. Joseph, Mis­souri. Traffic on the upper river (Council Bluffs to Fort Benton) during these years revolved almost singularly around supplying the exploits of the American Fur Company.4 By the 1850s and 1860s,Montana Territory’s newly discovered gold deposits brought scores of optimistic prospectors and large quantities of government supplies to the growing military forts on the upper Missouri.5 During those years, boat builders and pilots acquired sufficient experience to design shoal-draft steamboats capable of reaching the headwaters of the Missouri River.6 The arrival of the Chippewa and Key West at Fort Benton in 1860 proved the full extent of Missouri River navigation. By the 1870s, ever-growing demands to supply western forts with provisions and Indian annuities led to lucrative government freight shipping contracts .As competition for contracts increased between steamboat companies, their success depended as much on skillful river navigation as on shrewd lobbying in the nation’s capitol.7 Though their reign was relatively short, steam­boat owners adapted to the rapidly evolving economy around the river and were quick to exploit changing patterns of freight hauling. By midcentury , government freight hauling fell under the control of four dominant transportation companies: the Kountz Line, the Peck Line, the Fort Benton Transportation Company, and the Missouri River Transportation Company (also known as the Coulson Line). Of these four companies, the Missouri River Transportation Company, headed by Sanford B. Coulson, operated the largest and most successful fleet of steamboats on the river.8 By the century ’s end, Coulson directed the fastest boats, the most accomplished river pilots,and had built the most famous sister boats on the Missouri: Wyoming, Dacotah, and Montana.  · chapter 2 Missouri River Transportation Company Sanford Coulson, born in 1832 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, began his career as a steamboat blacksmith. He soon entered the Ohio and Mississippi river trade as an assistant engineer on a steamboat owned by William J. Kountz. After irreconcilable differences with Kountz, Coulson left the Ohio and Mississippi river trade for employment on the Missouri River with the Northwest Transportation Company in Sioux City, Iowa. Coulson’s difficulties with his former...