The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West
The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West

Author: Annalies Corbin

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13:

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"This book documents the life and times, as well as the scientific excavation and analysis, of the largest mountain river steamer the American Rocky Mountains and the High Plains West ever witnessed. Among a handful of ships built to compete with the increasing popularity of the railroads, the Montana was a shining example of modern design when it made its maiden voyage in 1879. In its day the ship attracted attention because of its audacious size and technological sophistication. It is remembered now for its ironic end: a mere five years after it first set sail, the Montana struck a railroad bridge near Bridgeton, Missouri, and sank." "Even after its demise, the Montana remains unique as one of a small sample of scientifically studied western river steamboats. The archaeological team directed in part by Bradley Rodgers and assembled by East California University and SGI Engineering, Inc., took great care to comprehensively document the great steamboat. Their painstaking work has resulted in this re-creation of the majestic vessel as told through the lens of interdisciplinary study. The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West combines historic archaeology, written records, and uniquely personal observations made by the authors. This approach guides readers through the ship's story with a wealth of written and visual material documenting its construction, use, and wreck. This is a thorough examination of the development of Missouri River steamboat trade and its relationship to western expansion in America."--BOOK JACKET.

The Life And Times of the Steamboat Red Cloud
The Life And Times of the Steamboat Red Cloud

Author: Annalies Corbin

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 9781585445165

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In July 1882, the steamboat Red Cloud hit a snag near Fort Peck, Montana, and settled into the bed of the Missouri River with a full cargo. The flagship of I. G. Baker & Company, which controlled much of the trade that flowed to Fort Benton and the upper reaches of the Missouri River, the Red Cloud had served as an agent of change in the West through which it traveled. Through the story of the boat and its owner, Annalies Corbin casts new light on the role of entrepreneurs and steamboats in the development of the West. The Red Cloud was a symbol--and a source--of the trading company's success. Bought for $25,000 in 1877, it was one of three boats that I. G. Baker employed on the Missouri. A stern-wheeled, wooden-hulled packet boat, the Red Cloud carried both cargo and passengers on a "floating palace." But for all its success, when the ship sank only five years later, the transcontinental railroad was already displacing the steamboat as the preferred way to transport both people and cargo. The era of transformation symbolized by the Red Cloud was drawing to a close. The first book to view the development of the Canadian Rockies from a maritime perspective, The Life and Times of the Steamboat Red Cloud ties the Missouri River's commercial development with the opening of the Canadian west and its most important communities, with the formation of the Canadian North-West Mounted Police and with the river by which they were supplied. Readers interested in western history, maritime history, and nautical archaeology will find this well-researched and engagingly written book an invaluable addition to their libraries.

The Steamboat Phoenix and the Archaeology of Early Steam Navigation in North America
The Steamboat Phoenix and the Archaeology of Early Steam Navigation in North America

Author: George R Schwarz

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-15

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1351133853

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The Steamboat Phoenix and the Archaeology of Early Steam Navigation in North America offers an in-depth exploration of the archaeological and cultural aspects of early American steamboat development. It also tells the story of Phoenix, the second steamer to operate on Lake Champlain and the world’s earliest archaeologically studied steamboat wreck. In doing so, this book provides a unique insight into early perceptions of steam navigation, including both the wonder and fear elicited by the comfort and efficiency they promised and the hazards with which they came to be associated. The advent of steam navigation contributed significantly to the economic transformation of early America, facilitating trade through the transportation of goods along the country’s lakes, rivers, and canals. Despite their significant role, however, few details on the construction and operation of early steamboats have survived in historical documents. This book helps address this gap by examining the archaeological record. Using Phoenix as a case study and comparing it with the archaeological remains of other contemporary steamers, this book offers a detailed and extensive insight into the development of early steam propulsion and of steamboat culture in America, as well as a look at what life was like on board through the analysis of recovered artifacts and contemporary accounts. With over 90 illustrations, including a reconstruction of the steamboat, The Steamboat Phoenix and the Archaeology of Early Steam Navigation in North America is ideal for archaeologists and maritime historians, but also for those with a general interest in American maritime history.

Our Blue Planet: An Introduction to Maritime and Underwater Archaeology
Our Blue Planet: An Introduction to Maritime and Underwater Archaeology

Author: Ben Ford

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-04-07

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 0190649941

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Our Blue Planet provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of maritime and underwater archaeology. Situating the field within the broader study of history and archaeology, this book advocates that an understanding of how our ancestors interacted with rivers, lakes, and oceans is integral to comprehending the human past. Our Blue Planet covers the full breadth of maritime and underwater archaeology, including formerly terrestrial sites drowned by rising sea levels, coastal sites, and a wide variety of wreck sites ranging across the globe and spanning from antiquity to World War II. Beginning with a definition of the field and several chapters dedicated to the methods of finding, recording, and interpreting submerged sites, Our Blue Planet provides an entry point for all readers, whether or not they are familiar with maritime and underwater archaeology or archaeology in general. The book then shifts to a thematic approach with chapters exploring human interactions with the watery world, both along the coasts and by ship. These chapters discuss the relationships between culture, technology, and environment that allowed humans through time to spread across the globe. Because ships were the primary means for humans to interact with large bodies of water, they are the focus of several chapters on the development of shipbuilding technology, the lives of sailors, and the uses of ships in exploration, expansion, and warfare. The book ends with chapters on how and why the non-renewable submerged archaeological record should be managed, so that both current and future generations can learn from the achievements and failures of past societies, as well as on how anyone can become involved in maritime and underwater archaeology. Throughout, the reader benefits from the personal reflections of a number of leading figures in the field.

The Archaeology of Vernacular Watercraft
The Archaeology of Vernacular Watercraft

Author: Amanda M. Evans

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-19

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1493935631

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This volume presents multiple idiographic, archaeological studies of vernacular watercraft from North America and the Caribbean. Rather than attempt to synthesize all vernacular types, this volume focuses on ship construction data recovered through archaeological investigations that has been used to make inferences about culture. This collection of case studies, including many examples from cultural resource management and graduate student theses, presents a thematic exploration of cultural adaptation as expressed through ship construction.

The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology
The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology

Author: Alexis Catsambis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-04-01

Total Pages: 1234

ISBN-13: 0199705151

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The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology is a comprehensive survey of the field as seen through the eyes of nearly fifty scholars at a time when maritime archaeology has established itself as a mature branch of archaeology. This volume draws on many of the distinct and universal aspects of maritime archaeology, bringing them together under four main themes: the research process, ships and shipwrecks, maritime and nautical culture, and issues of preservation and management. The first section of the book deals with the best practices for locating, documenting, excavating, and analyzing submerged sites. This methodological foundation is followed by a sample of shipwreck studies from around the world as scholars trace the regional development of ships and seafaring. Chosen to balance the traditional core regions of maritime archaeology with important but lesser-studied areas, it aims at offering an international account of the study of submerged sites. Reflecting the growing number of scholars who study past maritime cultures, but not shipwrecks, the third section of the book addresses various aspects of the maritime landscape and ethnography above and below the water. The final chapters then approach maritime archaeology in a broader context, moving beyond archaeological sites to discuss the archaeological record in general within legal, preservation, and management frameworks. Taken together, these individual and original articles provide a valuable resource that summarizes the current state of the field of maritime archaeology and offers insight into the future of this established and growing discipline.

The Archaeology of Watercraft Abandonment
The Archaeology of Watercraft Abandonment

Author: Nathan Richards

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-05

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 146147342X

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The historical importance and archaeological potential of deliberately discarded watercraft has not been a major feature of maritime archaeological enquiry. While research on the topic has appeared since the 1970s as books, chapters, and articles, most examples have been limited in focus and distribution, and in most cases disseminated as unpublished archaeological reports (i.e. the “gray literature”.) So, too, has there been a lack of a single source representing the diversity of geographical, historic, thematic, and theoretical contexts that ships’ graveyard sites and deliberately abandoned vessels represent. In contrast with much of the theoretical or case-specific literature on the theme of watercraft discard, this volume communicates to the reader the common heritage and global themes that ships’ graveyard sites represent. It serves as a blueprint to illustrate how the remains of abandoned vessels in ships' graveyards are sites of considerable research value. Moreover, the case studies in this volume assist researchers in understanding the evolution of maritime technologies, economies, and societies. This volume is intended to expose research potential, create discussion, and reinforce the significance of a prevalent cultural resource that is often overlooked.

The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce
The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce

Author: Ronald R. Switzer

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2013-10-29

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0806151285

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On April 1, 1865, the steamboat Bertrand, a sternwheeler bound from St. Louis to Fort Benton in Montana Territory, hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank twenty miles north of Omaha. The crew removed only a few items before the boat was silted over. For more than a century thereafter, the Bertrand remained buried until it was discovered by treasure hunters, its cargo largely intact. This book categorizes some 300,000 artifacts recovered from the Bertrand in 1968, and also describes the invention, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of these products and traces their route to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory. The ship and its contents are a time capsule of mid-nineteenth-century America, rich with information about the history of industry, technology, and commerce in the Trans-Missouri West. In addition to enumerating the items the boat was transporting to Montana, and offering a photographic sample of the merchandise, Switzer places the Bertrand itself in historical context, examining its intended use and the technology of light-draft steam-driven river craft. His account of steamboat commerce provides multiple insights into the industrial revolution in the East, the nature and importance of Missouri River commerce in the mid-1800s, and the decline in this trade after the Civil War. Switzer also introduces the people associated with the Bertrand. He has unearthed biographical details illuminating the private and social lives of the officers, crew members, and passengers, as well as the consignees to whom the cargo was being shipped. He offers insight into not only the passengers’ reasons for traveling to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory, but also the careers of some of the entrepreneurs and political movers and shakers of the Upper Missouri in the 1860s. This unique reference for historians of commerce in the American West will also fascinate anyone interested in the technology and history of riverine transport.

Steamboats on the Western Rivers
Steamboats on the Western Rivers

Author: Louis C. Hunter

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-04-30

Total Pages: 721

ISBN-13: 0486157784

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Richly detailed definitive account covers every aspect of steamboat's development — from construction, equipment, and operation to races, collisions, rise of competition, and ultimate decline of steamboat transportation.