THE BATTLE WITH THE RAILROADS.
The great enemy of the Missouri River steamboat was the railroad. The
impression now exists that the river has ceased to be a navigable
stream. It has ceased to be a navigated stream, but it is as navigable
as it ever was. Let it be known that all railroads in its valley will
cease running for a period of five years and there will be a thousand
boats on the river in less than six months. It is not a change in the
stream, but in methods of transportation, that has ruined the commerce
of the river.
[Sidenote: ADVANCE OF THE RAILROADS.]
The struggle between the steamboat and the railroad lasted just about
twenty-eight years, or from 1859--when the Hannibal and St. Joseph
railroad reached St. Joseph, Mo.--to 1887, when the Great Northern
reached Helena, Mont. The influence of the railroads had been felt
to some extent before this on the lower river. The Missouri Pacific
railroad, which parallels the river from St. Louis to Kansas City, was
opened to Jefferson City, March 13, 1856, but did not reach Kansas City
until ten years later. This road did not have much effect upon the
steamboat business of the river. Most of the boats ran far beyond the
points reached by the road, and would have kept on the river whether
the railroad were there or not. Being there, they secured a large part
of the freight, even along the line of the railroad.
When the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad reached the Missouri River at
St. Joseph in 1859, that town became an important terminus for river
commerce connected with the railroad. A line of packets including
three boats ran south to Kansas City and north to Sioux City, with
an occasional trip to Fort Randall. The first service of Captain La
Barge’s boat, the _Emilie_, was in this trade, in which he remained for
two years.
The next point on the river reached by the railroads was at Council
Bluffs and Omaha. On the 15th of March, 1867, the Chicago and
Northwestern railroad reached the former place and on March 15, 1872,
the Union Pacific bridge was opened across the river. Omaha largely
supplanted St. Joseph in the upper river trade, and still further
restricted the business from St. Louis.
The Sioux City and Pacific railroad entered Sioux City in 1868 from
Missouri Valley, thus connecting with Omaha and Chicago. In 1870 the
Illinois Central reached the same place directly across the State.
Sioux City became, and for a long time remained, a more important
river port than either St. Joseph or Omaha. All during the period of
the Indian wars, in the decade from 1870 to 1880 it was the great
shipping point for the army in all its work on the upper river. Even
the trade to Fort Benton was in great part transferred to this point,
and the St. Louis trade with that port suffered another severe falling
off.
[Sidenote: FINISHING BLOWS.]
And now its bold antagonist attacked the steamboat business on every
side. The Union Pacific railroad was opened to Ogden in 1869, and a
freight line was at once established through to Helena, thus diverting
south a large part of the business which had before gone to the river.
In 1872 the Northern Pacific reached Bismarck, and cut off nearly
all the upper river trade from Sioux City. In 1880 the Utah Northern
entered Montana from Ogden and captured a large share of the trade of
that Territory. In 1883 the Northern Pacific reached the valley of the
Upper Missouri, and virtually controlled all the business that had
hitherto gone to the Missouri River except the small proportion which
originated at Fort Benton and below to Bismarck. The final blow was
delivered to the river trade in 1887, when the Great Northern reached
Helena.
[Sidenote: DOOM OF OLD FORT BENTON.]
This was practically the end of the steamboat business on the Missouri
River, and the doom of old Fort Benton. A new town arose at the
Great Falls, under the fostering care of the railroad, absorbed most
of the former trade of Fort Benton, and grew into one of the largest
towns of the State. Fort Benton dropped rapidly into a condition of
decadence from which it has never recovered. In the meanwhile all the
regular steamboat owners withdrew from the river except the Benton
Transportation Company, which has maintained to the present day a very
small fleet of boats at Bismarck, N. D. It was a sad day for the marine
insurance companies when the fate of the river commerce was settled by
the railroads. Accidents occurred with astonishing certainty whenever
it was found that boats were no longer needed; and it was left to the
underwriters to close up the final account of this record of disaster.
[Illustration: REMOVING SNAGS FROM THE MISSOURI]
The last commercial boat that ever arrived at Fort Benton left that
port in 1890. The victory of the railroads was complete, and every year
since they have extended their lines still further into the valley
and along the shores of the river, gradually cutting off the small
local trade to points not yet reached by rail. The boat was never able
to compete with the locomotive. The river did not run in the right
direction. Mile for mile the transportation of freight upon it cost
more than by rail. As to passenger traffic--what could forty miles a
day do against four hundred! Nothing but the absolute exclusion of
railroads could save the steamboat, and the development of the country
made this as undesirable as it was impossible.
[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSOURI RIVER.]
In this long and hopeless struggle the steamboats found a strenuous
ally in the government of the United States, which cheerfully undertook
to alter the course of events and maintain a freight traffic along the
river. The history of government improvement work upon the Missouri
River is an instructive one. For many years it consisted solely in the
removal of snags and obstructions, and to this extent was a great and
unquestionable benefit. Of the hundreds of steamboats lost on the river
about seventy per cent. were lost from striking snags, and the removal
of these obstructions was therefore an obvious step of good policy.
Appropriations began to be made for the Missouri River jointly with
the Mississippi and the Ohio as early as 1832, but the first actual
work seems to have been done in 1838. In that year two snagboats, the
_Heliopolis_ and the _Archimedes_, ran up the river 325 miles and 385
miles respectively, removing altogether 2245 snags and cutting 1710
overhanging trees from the banks, at a total cost of twenty thousand
dollars. In this same year the river was examined as far up as Westport
(Kansas City), with a view of taking up the question of its general
improvement. The officer of Engineers who made this examination was
Captain Robert E. Lee.
From this time on to 1879 appropriations continued to be made
jointly for the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Arkansas rivers,
with occasional lapses of one or more years. The work done under
these appropriations was exclusively the removal of snags, and was
undoubtedly of great value. It was done when the traffic on the river
was at its height, and it was therefore applied when and where needed.
There can be little doubt that the property saved by this work many
times repaid its cost.
[Sidenote: A DOUBTFUL POLICY.]
[Sidenote: DEAD BEYOND HOPE.]
In 1879 the government began a general improvement of the river by
contracting its channel, so as to produce a greater depth at low water
and make navigation possible at all stages. It was a doubtful policy at
best, in view of the rapid and inevitable decline of traffic, but this
consideration seems only to have increased the determination to keep
boats on the river whether the interests of the public required them
there or not. The policy was kept up in ever-increasing measure, and in
1884 Congress created a Commission of five members to take the matter
in charge and conduct the work in a systematic way. A more fatuitous
course has rarely been adopted by any government than this attempt to
reverse the decrees of destiny and accomplish the impossible. Even at
that time the fate of Missouri River navigation was to most men as
clear as the flash of light in the night. It was dead beyond the hope
of resurrection, at least within another century. The desultory traffic
which existed here and there would not amount, in the total value of
the freight carried, to the appropriations made for facilitating its
transportation.
Nevertheless, in face of this inevitable march of events, the problem
was taken up in earnest. Millions of dollars were appropriated, a
vast accumulation of plant was made, and an astonishing amount of
actual work accomplished. The result? So far as its influence upon the
commerce of the valley is concerned the same as if this money had been
used to build a railroad in Greenland. Not a boat more has followed
the river than if the work had not been done. From that point of
view it has all been wasted effort. From another viewpoint, however,
it has been of great benefit. It has protected many miles of river
front, saved from destruction thousands of acres of valuable bottom
lands, and millions of property on city fronts and along the lines of
railroads. It has developed some of the most effective methods known to
engineering for the control of alluvial rivers, and has made a solid
contribution to the advancement of science. From a purely engineering
point of view and its great value in the protection of property, the
work may be considered a success; from its influence upon the commerce
of the country, something very different.
[Sidenote: MISSOURI RIVER COMMISSION.]
For seventeen years the Missouri River Commission dragged out an
unnecessary existence, and was finally abolished by Act of Congress,
June 13, 1902. But the lesson, if a costly one, has been well learned.
So far as government work on the Missouri River is concerned, it will,
in the near future at least, be confined to two purposes. On the lower
stretches of the river it will be devoted to the protection of property
along the banks; in the upper course to the building of reservoirs and
canals, for the utilization of its waters in irrigation.[73]
Thus the battle between the railroads on the one hand and the
steamboats, with their government ally, on the other, has resulted
in overwhelming victory for the former. It is a victory not to be
regretted. It is in line with progress. The country has passed beyond
any use that can come from transportation methods like those of the
Missouri River steamboat. It served its purpose and served it well. It
filled a great place in the early development of the Western country.
But its day has passed, and henceforth it will be of interest only to
lovers of history.
[Illustration: “IMPROVING” THE MISSOURI RIVER]