History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Volume 1 (of 2): Life and Adventures of Joseph La BargeChittenden, Hiram Martin
History
History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Volume 1 (of 2): Life and Adventures of Joseph La Barge
Chittenden, Hiram Martin
La Barge, Joseph, 1815-1899; Missouri River -- History; Steam-navigation -- Missouri River
[Sidenote: CHOUTEAU BLUFFS.]
The boat did not get as far as was expected on this trip. A little
above the mouth of the Niobrara River it was stopped for a time by low
water. Pierre Chouteau, Jr., who, with McKenzie, was the soul of
the enterprise, was a passenger. Burning with impatience at the delay,
he sent to Fort Tecumseh for lighters to take off a portion of the
cargo. Every day he got out upon the high bluffs overlooking the river
and paced up and down, watching for the desired assistance and praying
for a rise in the river. The bluffs have ever since been known as the
Chouteau Bluffs.
At last three boats came down and relieved the steamer of enough of her
cargo to enable her to reach Fort Tecumseh, where Fort Pierre, S. D.,
now stands. No attempt was made to go farther, and in a short time she
returned to St. Louis.
In spite of the failure to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone
the experiment was considered enough of a success to justify its
repetition. Accordingly, in the spring of 1832, the _Yellowstone_ set
out again, and this time reached Fort Union. The voyage was highly
successful, and the return trip was made at the rate of a hundred
miles a day. Pierre Chouteau, Jr., was again a passenger. Since the
previous year Fort Tecumseh had been rebuilt in a situation less
exposed to the ravages of the river, and was ready for occupancy when
the _Yellowstone_ arrived on her upward trip. It was at that time
christened _Fort Pierre_, in honor of the distinguished visitor and
member of the company. George Catlin, the painter of Indian scenes and
portraits, was also a passenger, and his writings and sketches have
added to the celebrity of the voyage.
[Sidenote: SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.]
The success of the second experiment in navigating the Missouri gave
great satisfaction to the company and to the public in general, for it
had never been considered possible to take steamboats so far. It added
seventeen hundred miles to the internal navigable waters of the United
States, with every prospect that this would be extended to the very
foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The voyage created great interest
both in this country and in Europe, and John Jacob Astor, who was in
France at the time, wrote home that nearly all the public journals of
the Continent had made mention of it. Ramsay Crooks, general agent of
the company in New York, thus expressed his pleasure to the house in
St. Louis at the great success which they had achieved:
[Sidenote: CONGRATULATIONS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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