Reminiscences of John H. Charles. 53 



STEAMBOATING ON THE MISSOURI. 



The steamboat business was fascinating and roman- 

 tic. The Missouri Kiver is very treacherous, the channel 

 always shifting. To be a pilot required great skill and 

 courage. The pilot was extremely well paid. But the 

 river was not the only danger. Some of the Indians 

 on the upper river were extremely hostile. It required 

 great courage on the part of the captain, too. 



When the steamboats first began to come up the 

 river they were a great curiosity to the Indians and were 

 warmly welcomed, indeed, by the whites. The approach 

 of a steamboat was generally known long enough in 

 advance for a good sized crowd to greet it at the levee 

 when it came to land. 



The first steamboat to come as far up the river as 

 Sioux City was the Yellowstone, in 1831. In 1863 two 

 new factors entered in, which increased the number of 

 boats on the river very much. Fully sixteen or eighteen 

 boats were doing business on the upper river, between 

 here and Ft. Benton, in 1863. One reason for the in- 

 crease was the discovery of gold in Montana, which 

 called for a large amount of manufactured articles as 

 well as for provisions. All freight destined for the mines 

 was taken up the river to Ft, Benton and then hauled 

 by teams to the camps. The second cause was Indian 

 troubles. After the New Ulm disaster in 1863 the U. S. 

 Government tried to punish the Indians. Gen. Sully was 

 sent up the river in 1863 and still more troops followed 

 in 1864. 



The business increased in 1864 and 1865 and then 

 fell away again, until 1868, when it reached high water 

 mark. 



In the spring of 1864 the first boat up took from 

 our house express packages valued at |6,000. The trans- 

 portation charges on the goods were often equal to their 

 value. Everything, from the needles needed for sew- 

 ing their buckskin to steam engines used for crushing 

 quartz, had to go up the river by boat and had to come 

 by way of Sioux City. 



The orders which we used to get were something to 

 be wondered at. Upon one occasion one customer or- 



