On April 1, 1865, the steamboat Bertrand, a sternwheeler bound from St. Louis to Fort Benton in Montana Territory, hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank twenty miles north of Omaha. The crew removed only a few items before the boat was silted over. For more than a century thereafter, the Bertrand remained buried until it was discovered by treasure hunters, its cargo largely intact. This book categorizes some 300,000 artifacts recovered from the Bertrand in 1968, and also describes the invention, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of these products and traces their route to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory. The ship and its contents are a time capsule of mid-nineteenth-century America, rich with information about the history of industry, technology, and commerce in the Trans-Missouri West. In addition to enumerating the items the boat was transporting to Montana, and offering a photographic sample of the merchandise, Switzer places the Bertrand itself in historical context, examining its intended use and the technology of light-draft steam-driven river craft. His account of steamboat commerce provides multiple insights into the industrial revolution in the East, the nature and importance of Missouri River commerce in the mid-1800s, and the decline in this trade after the Civil War. Switzer also introduces the people associated with the Bertrand. He has unearthed biographical details illuminating the private and social lives of the officers, crew members, and passengers, as well as the consignees to whom the cargo was being shipped. He offers insight into not only the passengers’ reasons for traveling to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory, but also the careers of some of the entrepreneurs and political movers and shakers of the Upper Missouri in the 1860s. This unique reference for historians of commerce in the American West will also fascinate anyone interested in the technology and history of riverine transport.

"This book documents the life and times, as well as the scientific excavation and analysis, of the largest mountain river steamer the American Rocky Mountains and the High Plains West ever witnessed. Among a handful of ships built to compete with the increasing popularity of the railroads, the Montana was a shining example of modern design when it made its maiden voyage in 1879. In its day the ship attracted attention because of its audacious size and technological sophistication. It is remembered now for its ironic end: a mere five years after it first set sail, the Montana struck a railroad bridge near Bridgeton, Missouri, and sank." "Even after its demise, the Montana remains unique as one of a small sample of scientifically studied western river steamboats. The archaeological team directed in part by Bradley Rodgers and assembled by East California University and SGI Engineering, Inc., took great care to comprehensively document the great steamboat. Their painstaking work has resulted in this re-creation of the majestic vessel as told through the lens of interdisciplinary study. The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West combines historic archaeology, written records, and uniquely personal observations made by the authors. This approach guides readers through the ship's story with a wealth of written and visual material documenting its construction, use, and wreck. This is a thorough examination of the development of Missouri River steamboat trade and its relationship to western expansion in America."--BOOK JACKET.

A Study of 19th century glass and ceramic containers.