By H. V. Arnold
About 1858, interest began to be taken by those engaged in commercial pursuits in the navigation of the Red River by steamboats, since it was known that it had long been used to transport goods by the use of canoes. In October 1858, Captain Russell Blakely of St. Paul, accompanied by John R. Irvine, visited the Red River Valley for the purpose of examining the practicability of navigating this stream by steamboats. Resulting from the report of Captain Blakely, the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce offered to pay a bonus of $2,000 to whoever would place a steamboat upon the Red River.
The Red River of the North is neither a wide nor deep stream and is, or formerly was, practically navigable from Lake Winnipeg upstream as far as Breckenridge and Wahpeton. This, at least in respect to the latter points, was practicable when the river was above its ordinary stage. After the founding of Moorhead and Fargo, the bridges stopped the boats from going above those places. The river is very crooked in respect to its minor bends, increasing to a long stretch the distances that the boats had to travel over and above a nearly straight course such as the railroads in the valley now have. Thus, the distance from the mouth of the Bois des Sioux at Wahpeton to the international boundary is 186 miles by a straight course and 397 miles by the numerous twists and turns of the river channel, yet in all this part of its course the river does not deviate from one side to the other of a meridian line more than five or six miles. At Wahpeton, the river at its ordinary stage is 943 feet above sea level; the altitude of Lake Winnipeg is 710 feet, hence the fall of what has here been alluded to as the navigable part of the river amounts to 233 feet. For about twenty-four miles as the river runs, or twelve in a straight course next below the mouth of the Goose, the stream crosses a morainic belt of boulder clay that extends across the valley here at this point, and its bed is obstructed with boulders, forming the Goose rapids. The fall in this part of the river is twenty-four feet in its low water stage and fourteen feet during high water. These slight rapids were often a hindrance to the passage of the boats during any season of low water in the days of steamboat navigation.
The range between extreme low and high water at the different points named is as follows: Wahpeton, 15 feet; Fargo, 32 feet; Belmont, 50 feet; Grand Forks, 44 feet; Pembina, 40 feet; and at Winnipeg, 39 feet. The maximum point of extreme high water, occurring only during occasional spring floods, is Belmont, in Traill County, where the river channel is narrowed between high banks of boulder clay; the next point of extreme high water level at Grand Forks is connected with the entrance into the Red at that place of the Red Lake River. The years in which extraordinary floods have occurred on the Red River and been recorded are those of 1826, 1852, 1860, 1861, 1882, and 1897.
The steamboat era on the Red River may be considered as having had its beginning in 1859 and as practically terminating in 1886, in consequence of most of the boats having been driven out by the railroads by that time. There are two rather distinct periods to this era. The first came within the epoch of the fur trading business and was not helped by any settling or agricultural development of the country; the second period was coeval with the settling and earlier stages of the development of the valley. Of the earlier Red River steamboats, four of them have now become historic. These are the Freighter, the Anson Northup, the International, and the Selkirk. For the present, we are only concerned with the first three of these boats.
The Episode of the Freighter
The dates of many of the facts relative to Red River Valley history, as usually published in various pamphlets, sketches, etc., are very discrepant, though generally they vary but one year forward or backward of that which should be the correct one. But in respect to the last trip ever made by the steamer Freighter, they reach a perfect climax of confusion. While the general facts of the matter need not be called in question, the date of the attempt that was made to transfer this boat into Red River seems to be involved in almost hopeless entanglement. Manifestly, only one date to the incident here following can be the correct one, yet every year from 1857 to 1862 inclusive has been assigned by different sketch writers as the one that terminated the career of this boat. In this respect, nearly every writer mentioning the circumstance and assigning a date, is at variance with nearly every other. Moreover, some have confounded the Freighter with the Anson Northup, rendering a bad matter in respect to chronology still worse.
In the spring of 1859 or ’60 ((N. H. Winchell, a good authority, in the Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, vol. i, p. 134, gives the date as 1859. Russell Blakely states that it was in 1860. This attempt to take the boat into Red River is said to have been an incident of a gold excitement that had broken out on the Saskatchewan. If this statement is correct, then the episode of the Freighter would have fallen in the spring following this gold craze.)) an attempt was made to transfer a steamboat from the Minnesota into the Red River of the North by passing it through the long trough connecting the valleys of these rivers and in which nestle Lakes Traverse and Big Stone. The heads of these lakes are about five miles apart, but the low bottom land between them, called Browns Valley, is occasionally sufficiently flooded in the spring so that they are connected together, although draining in opposite directions. It was known that on a few occasions laden canoes had made this passage from Pembina to St. Paul. A small steamer called the Freighter was then plying on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, with Capt. C. B. Thiemmens, master. The boat was owned by Capt. John B. Davis of St. Paul, and is stated to have been a flat-bottomed, square-bowed affair, about 125 feet in length, of 200 tons burden, and was presumably of the stern-wheeled style of build. Its owner seems to have conceived the idea of taking the boat into Red River in the manner above mentioned. Those directly interested in the enterprise were J. C. Burbank, Russell Blakely and associates, parties who about that time organized a company to operate a stage line from St. Cloud to the Red River Valley.
The Freighter was accordingly run up the Minnesota River during the spring rise, but the water subsiding, the boat grounded in the river channel and was left stranded about nine miles below the outlet of Big Stone Lake. ((The distance to the place below Big Stone Lake at which the Freighter was abandoned has been misstated nearly as often as the date. Warren Upham, who saw the remains of the hull of the boat in 1879, and states that the boat was burned after being abandoned, adds that the locality where she grounded is near the east line of Section 33, Odessa Township, Big Stone County, Minn. (Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota, vol. i, p. 624.) If the hull of the boat was ever burned it was not until some time after the cabin, machinery, and other fixtures had been removed. In that case, it could have been set on fire with equal facility by white men as by the Indians.)) It was then deserted by its crew, and one account says it was pillaged and nearly destroyed by the Indians. Captain Davis afterwards stated that if he had started the boat off from St. Paul some three or more weeks earlier he could have gotten her through Browns Valley and into Red River with little trouble. The boat was afterwards sold for its machinery to Burbank & Co. at sheriff’s sale, and finally its heavier equipment was removed as presently to be stated. In after years, no repetition of this experiment was practicable on account of mill dams on the upper Minnesota, and ultimately numerous bridges over the upper portions of both streams.
The First Steamer on Red River
The first steamboat to navigate the Red River was called the Anson Northup, and this boat was placed on the river in 1859. Some years before the Civil War, a steamboat called the North Star was in use on the Mississippi above the Falls of St. Anthony. This boat was bought at Minneapolis in the fall of 1858 by Captain Anson Northup, who took it up the river to Crow Wing, where it was dismantled. Here, lumber was sawed for a prospective boat to navigate the Red River. Early the next spring, an expedition left Crow Wing, consisting of thirty-four ox teams and forty-four men, en route for the Red River Valley, with the boilers, engine, and furnishings of the North Star, and the sawed lumber. The expedition followed one of the cart trails to Detroit Lake, the remainder of the journey being across a stretch of country without trails, bridges, or inhabitants, and rather difficult to pass through in March. A town site named Lafayette had been laid out a year or two before this time opposite the mouth of the Sheyenne, and this place contained a log cabin or two. The party arrived here on the evening of the first of April. Here, the hull of the boat was built. This being completed, and the boilers and machinery having been placed in position, it was launched and next run up to Fort Abercrombie, where the cabin was constructed.
This first boat to navigate the Red River had a capacity of from fifty to seventy-five tons. Its machinery had previously been used in other boats, and is said to have been brought to the West from the state of Maine about the year 1851. The steamer started for Fort Garry on May 17, and arrived there on June 5, 1859. She returned up to Fort Abercrombie, bringing on the trip twenty passengers. Here she was tied up, and when Captain Blakely and others desired her further services, they were informed that they would have to buy the Anson Northup if they wanted to run her. Captain Northup had agreed to place a steamer on the Red River for the bonus that had been offered, but had not agreed to run the boat on any regular trips. Later on, the boat was bought by J. C. Burbank.
Stage Line to Red River
The Hudson Bay Company maintained a few posts this side of the boundary line, in the capacity of a commercial organization. One of these, called Georgetown, located on the Minnesota side of the Red River, sixteen miles north of the site of Moorhead, was established on August 12, 1859. The post was located by James McKey. During the same year, an association called the Minnesota Stage Company was organized by J. C. Burbank, Russell Blakely, and their associates, to put on a line of stage coaches between St. Cloud and Fort Abercrombie, the route being by way of Sauk Centre, Osakis, Alexandria, and Breckenridge. This stage line resulted from mail contracts of 1858, whereby mail was to be carried by way of the places named to Fort Abercrombie and other northwestern points. An expedition was sent out in June to bridge streams and open the road. This being done, and stations established, the stages began running in the fall of 1859. The next spring, the stage line was extended down to the Georgetown post.
There accompanied the road-making expedition a party of ladies and gentlemen from Great Britain, bound for the Hudson Bay posts in British America. Of the party were the Misses Ellenora and Christina Sterling of Scotland. The party, it seems, expected to travel by boat to Fort Garry, but Captain Northup, having refused to run the steamer, a flatboat was built at Fort Abercrombie, and the party proceeded down the river, the flatboat being in charge of George W. Northup. On the trip down, one morning, a small band of Chippeway Indians fired several shots at the party. George asked why and what reason they had for shooting at them. Their answer was: “You must not talk our enemies’ language if you don’t want to be shot at.” It took twenty-two days to reach Fort Garry, and the ladies went on to Lake Athabasca, where they arrived just as winter set in.
While on his return to St. Paul, Captain Blakely learned of the purchase of the Anson Northup by his associate, Mr. Burbank. He appears to have returned at once to the valley. Under her new ownership, the boat made another trip to Fort Garry. The water now being low, the boat could not get through the Goose Rapids. Her cargo was unloaded, the intention being to have it taken to its destination by McKey’s carts, when the timely arrival of Captain Blakely resulted in the construction of wing dams, and the goods being reloaded, the boat proceeded safely to Fort Garry; but the crew returned to St. Paul by a cart train.
In the spring of 1860, Captain Blakely and associates completed a contract with Sir George Simpson for the transportation of 500 tons of freight annually from St. Paul to Fort Garry for a period of five years. The steamer was refitted the same spring, was renamed the Pioneer, and was commanded that summer by Captain Sam Painter, with Alden Bryant as clerk.
Nick Huffman said in the sketch written by him: “Stations had been built along the [stage] road, and teams by the hundred were hauling freight for Fort Garry and Georgetown. The old steamer Anson Northup was then making regular trips from Georgetown to Fort Garry. There was life and good pay everywhere. Captain Munn sent for me to work on the steamboat, which they then called the Pioneer. There was no pleasure in this, as the water was low and the men had to haul on the lines all day and chop wood all night by lantern, and we had a hard time to get the boat to Georgetown.”
The mail was now extended from Fort Abercrombie to Pembina, and William Tarbell and George W. Northup were employed as carriers, using carts in summer and dog-trains in winter. Ultimately, the Pioneer passed into the hands of the Hudson Bay Company, was dismantled, and her engines used to run a sawmill.
The International
The next boat to be placed upon the Red River was called the International. She was built at Georgetown in 1861. (According to the sketches, the date of the International runs from 1859 to 1863 inclusive. A. W. Kelly, of Jamestown, N. D., came to St. Paul in 1861, arriving there on the day of the Battle of Bull Run. He then went to Georgetown, where he helped to build the International. This fixes the building of the boat in the latter half of the year 1861. The boat was probably not launched until the spring of 1862.) This boat contained the machinery and other belongings of the stranded Freighter, which had been hauled by ox teams across the prairies late the previous fall and in charge of C. P. V. Lull. (“There was an old steamboat lying in the Minnesota River six miles below Big Stone Lake, which was intended to come over into the Red River in 1857. There was a big flood in the Minnesota River and Captain Davis thought he could run the old Freighter, for that was the name of the boat, into the Red River, but the water went down and the boat was left stranded. The boat was sold at sheriff’s sale and was bought by Burbank of the stage company. There was a Welshman left in charge of the boat and here he stayed nearly four years away from wife and children with nothing to eat, only what he could hunt and fish.
“In the fall of 1860, we took a lot of teams, wagons, and tools, under orders from Burbank and took the boat to pieces and brought it to Georgetown. We found the boat and the little Welshman all right.
“A second trip was necessary for the machinery. There were two big boilers, but we brought them safely to Georgetown, where the boat was rebuilt. We did not reach Georgetown till after Christmas with the last load and the weather was very cold.” — Nick Huffman’s Story.) The timber for the hull was cut along the Red River and sawed by the old-fashioned pit method, one man working the lower end of the saw below in a pit, and another the upper end upon the log above.
The International measured 137 feet in length, 26 feet beam, and was rated at 133 tons. She was owned by Burbank & Co.
Nick Huffman, evidently referring to the year 1862, wrote: “In the spring we all went on the boat, with Captain Barrett, Pilot John K. Swan, and the usual crowd of rousters. We run by day and chopped wood by night, as the Indians did not allow any woodchoppers to stay on the river, and so the boat had to get its own wood. The Indians owned the whole country then. It was steamboating under difficulties, as the Indians were inclined to be hostile and took everything from the settlers. The whole crew soon gave out and had to quit.”
Russell Blakely says: “The Indians had protested against the use of the river for steamboats, complaining that the boats drove away the game and killed the fish, while the whistle made such an unearthly noise that it disturbed the spirits of their dead and their fathers could not rest in their graves. They demanded four kegs of yellow money to quiet the spirits of their fathers, or that the boats be stopped. At this time, Clark W. Thompson, superintendent of Indian affairs, and Indian Commissioner Dole, were on their way to the mouth of Red Lake River, opposite Grand Forks, to hold a treaty with the Indians. They were turned back by the opening of Indian hostilities in August 1862.”
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