Page 32 - DesMoinesRiver

MISHAPS ON THE RIVER river snags, and other hazards. The death toll
for steamboats was nearly a dozen individuals
Steamboat Commerce was a high risk adventure. Those that successfully de- per accident. Those traveling on the open deck
livered their passengers and cargos often made handsome profits (annals of were also often exposed to dangerously unsani-
Iowa 1900:327-328). Getting much needed supplies through to people cut off tary conditions (Conrad and Cunning 1990:6).
by high water in a flood year could also Hussey’s collection of reminiscences includes a
get a captain hailed as a hero. There number of stories of steamboats that “suffered
are, however, a number of accounts of shipwrecks” during both high and low water
some shipments that went astray. times; however, in these cases the boats and,
usually, the cargo, were quickly salvaged leaving
One such story from the flood year Typical Des Moines River steamboat, Class I, from Hussey no evidence behind (Hussey 1900:349).
of 1851 tells about a load of wooden 1900. Courtesy of the State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City.
shoes headed for Pella. When the river Published with permission. Ironically, the steamboats themselves contrib-
became impassable because of flood- uted to the downfall of riverboat commerce
ing, the shoes had to be unloaded and on the Des Moines. The steamboats burned
stored in an unused blacksmith shop large quantities of timber to produce steam.
along the river. Unfortunately, the river They purchased wood from woodlots owned by
continued to rise, overflowed its banks and business men along the river or stopped along
1,000 wooden shoes “sailed off to the Father their route to cut down trees themselves (An-
of Waters”. (Annals of Iowa 1900:348) nals of Iowa 1900:339,334–335, 352–353). This,
combined with the use of wood by the mills and
In another case a flood brought about other industries, resulted in the clearing of much
of the timber from the river banks. Without
a career change for some young men. trees to stabilize them when floods struck, the
banks eroded and collapsed. At the same time
In the year 1850 the corn crop was farmers were clearing land and draining wetlands
for agricultural fields. This dramatically increased
very large. Some of the merchants con- erosion and runoff into the river causing banks
to widen and silt and sand to fill the river bed.
ceived a plan to purchase the corn and Even just 50 years later in 1900, Tacticus Hussey
would remark in his History of Steamboating on
take it to St. Louis in flatboats to sell. the Des Moines River, from 1837 to 1862:

They had flatboats built and contracted Indeed, it is difficult to realize as one now looks
upon our shrunken river, spanned by many steel
with the farmers to sell, sack and deliv- bridges, the little current creeping through and

er their corn to the banks of the river.

The inexperienced captain hit a snag

and they “suffered a ship wreck” at a Typical river flatboat, artist Ray Brown.

bend in the river. They removed as much corn

as they could, emptied the sacks, spread it out and “kept shoveling it until it

was dry and commenced to raise hogs.” (Annals of Iowa 1900:348-349).

32 A River of Unrivaled Advantages—Life Along the Lower Des Moines River