Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Fall 2011
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 31:4 (Fall 2011).
Abstract
Using two exceptional traveler journals, Steamboats West takes the reader on a remarkable journey "on one of the most memorable feats of steamboat navigation in North American history." The adventurous travelers, Elias J. Marsh, medical officer, and Charles Henry Weber, tourist, boarded the steamboat Spread Eagle for the annual American Fur Company expedition up the Missouri River to Fort Union in Dakota Territory.
In the words of historian Hiram Chittenden, "The incidents of a single steamboat voyage from St. Louis to Fort Union would make an entertaining chapter in any book of adventure." But, for Marsh and Weber, their adventure was just beginning. At Fort Union, they cross-decked to the accompanying steamer Chippewa, as Charles P. Chouteau, manager of the American Fur Company, executed his plan to extend steam boating to Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri River some 900 miles above Fort Union.
Comments
Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.