Riverboat Travel in the Old Wild West

This post is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt.

Riverboat Travel in the Old Wild West

This riverboat Mural in Independence, Oregon (Polk County) captures a romantic view of riverboat travel; Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives [Attribution], via Wikimedia Commons

Most of us think of western migration in America in the context of covered wagons. While it’s true that over 500,000 people traveled the Oregon Trail at its height (between 1843 and 1869), many others made their way west by a different route. Riverboats traveled farther inland than most people realize. Alexander Culbertson of the American Fur Company built Fort Benton at the end of the navigable waters of the upper Missouri in what is now central Montana.

Those willing to occupy the limited space remaining on the lower deck after the deckhands loaded the freight onboard a riverboat, could buy tickets fairly cheaply. 'Deck passengers' brought their own food and fended for themselves against the elements on the open deck. It couldn't have been fun to ride alongside the boilers, not to mention the livestock, cotton bales, and barrels, while crammed in with other passengers. It did, however, carry them to their desired destination.

Double the fee bought a private room on an upper deck and the chance to enjoy fine cuisine in the elegant dining room, gamble at a table in the bar, and lounge in comfort while watching the river slide by.

Whether sheltering with the cargo or living in luxury, both types of passenger might face danger. A riverboat might crash into a tree snag, run aground on a sandbar, catch fire, or suffer a boiler explosion. The wreck of the Sultana, a riverboat accident on the Mississippi in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, took more lives than the Titanic. The fire that burned down half of St. Louis in 1849 started on a steamboat. 

People took riverboats at their own risk. With liquor and gambling on board, passengers had to watch both their belongings and fellow passengers. The crew might not be honest either. The riverboat captain might have hired a professional gambler to fleece those reckless enough to approach the gaming tables. Sometimes a riverboat ran aground on a sandbar or gravel bar and passengers disembarked to lighten it, only to be abandoned once it was freed.

With all these troubles, why would anyone want to travel by riverboat? Speed. A steamboat could travel up to 5 miles per hour. Compare that to the 20 miles a day a wagon pulled by livestock averaged. Remember, too, that the Oregon Trail was not exactly safe either. During Montana’s goldrush, the backdrop for the Montana Gold series, miners were in a hurry to reach gold. The heroine of Cheyenne Sunrise, the second book in the series, travels to Independence by riverboat. Her brother Con, with whom she travels, distrusts riverboats so much that they join a wagon train for the rest of their journey. His attitude was not uncommon. Riverboats had a reputation. 

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn's father instilled a love of literature in her at an early age by reading chapters from classics as bedtime stories. When Janalyn grew older, and he stopped reading to her, she put herself to sleep with tales "written" in her head. 

Today Janalyn is a storyteller who writes in multiple genres. The same elements--romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy--appear in all her novels in proportions dictated by their genre. 

Cheyenne Sunrise (Montana Gold, book 2)

Can a woman with no faith in men learn to trust the half-Cheyenne trail guide determined to protect her?

Young Irish widow Bry Brennan doesn’t want another husband to break her spirit. When she and her brother Con join a wagon train headed to Montana Territory, Bry ignores her fascination with Nick Laramie, the handsome trail guide.
Nick lives in an uneasy truce between the settlers and his mother’s tribe without fully fitting in among either. With no intention of dragging a woman into his troubles, he stifles his yearning for Bry.

The perilous journey throws the two together, leaving Bry no choice but to trust Nick with her life. Can she also trust him with her heart? Answering that riddle forces Bry to confront her unresolved questions about God’s love.

Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, Cheyenne Sunrise explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west.

Purchase Cheyenne Sunrise 

Learn more about this series.

Travel on the Columbia River in the 1800s and Early 1900s

Bridal Veil Falls

By Miralee Ferrell

Two of my books set in the 1800s, Finding Love in Bridal Veil, Oregon, and Dreaming on Daisies, required that one of the characters (or more) travel by steamboat up the Columbia River Gorge, where I've lived most of my life. Lewis and Clark first discovered this route as they searched out The Oregon Trail. The picture of Bridal Veil Falls to the right is exactly what the pioneers would have seen as they traveled the river that flows between Oregon and Washington.


A few years ago I had the fun of taking a trip from Hood River to Cascade Locks on a reproduction of an old paddle-wheeler, and it was a wonderful experience. Here’s a picture of a paddle-wheeler still making trips from Portland, Oregon, all the way East through several dams—some offer day trips, some go for several days on an extended cruise.



The first steam boat went up the Columbia in the 1850s, the Beaver. 

During the time period my books are set, the 1870s and 1880s, there was no highway through the Gorge—in fact, there was rugged territory that had to be transversed through the edges of the Cascade Mountains, and some of it could only be accomplished by boat. One of the largest hurdles to boat travel during that time period was Celilo Falls, a few miles above The Dalles, Oregon. I was only a few years old when The Dalle

www.oregonencyclopedia.org

s Dam was built and Celilo Falls flooded. It wasn’t so much a large dropping fall, as a series of small falls and rapids where the Native Americans had fished for generations. I remember my parents driving up there so my older sister and I could see it before it disappeared for the last time. 

Mitchel Point Tunnel

Multnomah Creek Bridge

The very first highway through the Columbia Gorge began construction in 1913, and is now called the Scenic Columbia Gorge Highway. It still has many of the beautiful bridge and concrete work, passes in front of breathtaking waterfalls, and is maintained by the State. I was so amazed when researching the transportation through the Gorge a few years ago, to discover that my great-grandfather on my mother's side, helped build the highway. He and his team of mules were hired to drag stumps out of the way after being removed from what would become the roadbed. Until this road was built, people traveled by wagon, horseback or boat if they wanted to get from Portland to The Dalles, while staying along the river.

The building on the very top of the cliff is The Vista House, built in 1917 during the construction of the highway. Since 1918. when it was finished, this regal sight has enthralled millions of travelers, sitting 733 feet above the river. (as taken from Wikipedia) It was designed by Edgar M. Lazarus. With its marble interior and brass fixtures, some Oregonians at the time derided it as the "$100,000 ".[3] The original idea for an observatory at the site came from Samuel Lancaster, the consulting engineer for the Columbia River Highway. Lancaster proposed "an observatory from which the view both up and down the Columbia could be viewed in silent communion with the infinite"[4]  Lancaster also suggested the name "Vista House."


Miralee Ferrell is a best-selling, award-winning author, speaker, accredited counselor, and American Christian Fiction Writers chapter president who has published multiple contemporary and historical romance novels. She has two new series that released between 2013 and 2015, Love Blossoms in Oregon (historical romance) and Horses and Friends (middle-grade horse novels). She and her husband enjoy horseback riding, gardening, and family gatherings around their eleven-acre property in Washington State’s beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

Dreaming on Daisies--On Sale Now

When her father's debts, brought on by heavy drinking, threaten Leah Carlson's family ranch, she fights to save it. When handsome banker Steven Harding must decline her loan request, he determines to do what he can to help. Just as he arrives to serve as a much-needed ranch hand, Leah's family secrets—and the pain of her past—come to a head. They could destroy everything she's fought for. And they could keep her from ever opening her heart again.

This is western historical romance that offers hope and healing to the deepest wounds in a woman's past.

When the Lucias Newberry Sunk

 by Pamela S. Meyers

This past week, after a very long and cold winter, the excursion boats on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin returned to their docks in the village of Lake Geneva. Seeing pictures of the Lady of the Lake, a replica of the original Lady of the Lake paddle-wheel steamboat that once plied the same waters back in the 19^th century, got me to thinking again about another paddle-wheel boat called the Lucius Newberry.

It may not look elegant in this old drawing, but it was!

Back in the late 1800s the Newberry was the pride of the lake as it toured the waters, carrying both residents and tourists to various points along the 22 miles of shoreline. It was built in 1875 for a man named Lucius Newberry at the cost of $16,000. In 1887, he sold the steamer to another man named John Burton to be added to a fleet of excursion boats that included the original Lady of the Lake and another called the Commodore.

This side-wheeler boat was the showcase of the fleet, decorated to the hilt with Brussels carpeting and exquisite upholstered furniture, plate glass mirrors and an upright piano. It could carry as many as 500 passengers at a time, and during the height of the summer season, it made three daily trips from one end of the lake to the other.

All that changed on a chilly December night when it was tied to its dock home in Lake Geneva. It’s speculated that hobos had sought shelter from the cold by climbing aboard and decided to light

In this old postcard, that's the Newberr docked at the end of the pier.

up some smokes. That night the boat caught fire and, being constructed out of nothing but wood, it didn’t take long for it to be totally consumed. Volunteer firemen tried to save the vessel, but in the end they cut the ropes and the Newberry drifted out over the lake, flames shooting up across the water. Eventually it sank.

For years divers searched in vain for the wreckage and finally, a few years back, they found it. Since the vessel had burned down to the waterline, they were able to collect only a few artifacts such as a fancy ice bucket. But they did bring up the anchor which now sits in the Geneva Lake Museum.

The Lucias Newberry

I’ve always been fascinated about the fire and sinking of the Newberry and hope to include it in a future novel.

The replica paddleboats in the excursion fleet today are not operated by steam, but they do give us a taste of a different way of life back in the 19^th century when the boats were used for both pleasure and were the most efficient mode of travel to points on the lakeshore. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to time travel back to that time and live life as it was lived. I doubt I’d want to stay there more than a few days though.

What about you? Would you like to time travel back to another period in history? Where would you go?

 Win a Free Book!

To celebrate the return of spring to the Lake Geneva area, I’m giving away a copy of my book Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The story is set in 1933, when the Riviera building was built at the Lake Geneva lake shore. It's become a historical landmark and has been restored to its original design. Leave a comment and your name in the comment by Friday, May 9, 2014. I’ll draw a name on Saturday.

A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago, an hour's drive away from her hometown which she visits often to dig into its historical legacy. Her novels include Thyme for Love, and Love Will Find a Way,  contemporary romantic mysteries and her 1933 historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva,Wisconsin, released in April, 2013. She can often be found speaking at events around Lake Geneva or nosing in microfilms and historical records about Wisconsin and  other Midwestern spots for new story ideas.