Steamboats used the river highway

By Tim Krohn
Free Press Staff Writer

July 14, 2008 12:36 am

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New Ulm conservationist Scott Sparlin refers to the Minnesota River as the early transportation route for communities from the St. Paul to South Dakota.
“This was the highway that brought people to New Ulm originally.”
The earliest travel was by canoe, but for a short time the steamboat reigned supreme.
The first steamboat on the Minnesota, the Argo, left St. Paul and traveled to a Dakota Indian camp near what is now Shakopee in 1842.
Records say the Dakota protested the intrusion of the steamboat, saying it had “frightened game and killed fish, and its whistles disturbed the spirit of the dead.”
River boating didn’t begin in earnest until 1850 when the Anthony Wayne made its way to the Traverse des Sioux trading post near St. Peter. After that, more steamboats pushed farther up river and set off a competitive business with hundreds of trips made annually.
The steamboating season was relatively short. Water levels were generally only high enough until early July.
When the Traverse des Sioux Treaty of 1851 opened up millions of acres of land for settlement, the steamboats played a key role.
According to the writings of Patrick Cantwell, who settled Le Sueur, the towns of Mankato, Le Sueur, Shakopee and others were settled because they had good steamboat landings.
In 1856 alone, the steamboat Reveille brought 300 settlers to establish Mapleton, and the Yeatman carried 121 Welsh immigrants to settle South Bend.
The Minnesota Historical Society Quarterly from 1930 said the steamboating record for the river was set in 1862 with 413 trips from St. Paul.
The speed record was set by the Favorite in 1862 when it took 19 hours to travel from St. Paul to Mankato and 12 hours to get back.
Later that year, steamboats carried troops and refugees during the Dakota-U.S. Army conflict.
The following year, the Favorite transported 270 Dakota Indian prisoners from Mankato on their way to a prison in Iowa.
Henry David Thoreau was perhaps the most famous to take a steamboat trip when he traveled to the Sioux Agency in 1861.
The farthest up the river steamboats were able to navigate was the mouth of the Yellow Medicine River near the Upper Sioux Agency.
Through the 1860s the steamboats remained a vital source for shipping grain and other supplies, but the railroads were quickly taking over.
The last known steamboat trip on the Minnesota was in May 1897 when the Henrietta made a sightseeing trip from St. Paul to Mankato and back.

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