CHAPTER XXXV.

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.

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.