Snags on the Missouri

Description

Travel on the Missouri River in the nineteenth century was greatly encumbered by driftwood. Steamer pilots had to navigate carefully among these dangerous piles and hidden snags embedded in the sandbanks beneath the surface. Islands often were formed in the river by the accumulaion of such material, and a ship's entire company might be enlisted to drag a craft over or aroundthem using huge hawsers called cordelles. At other times keelboats were used to take off cargo to reduce the ship's draft over shallow stretches of the river. On the Missouri only a few miles above St. Louis, Maximilian noted in his journal that I "navigation is very dangerous on the Missouri. Large heaps of wood on both sides in the water leave only a narrow channel for us."