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Background

DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, located in Missouri Valley, Iowa, is home to a premier archeological collection of over 500,000 artifacts excavated from the buried hold of the Steamboat Bertrand. On April 1, 1865, the sternwheeler hit a sawyer, or submerged log, twenty miles north of Omaha, Nebraska. Bound for the newly discovered goldfields of Montana from St. Louis, Missouri, the Bertrand sank into the depths of the Missouri River; her cargo was a complete loss. Local folklore indicated the ship carried whiskey, gold and flasks of mercury for use in the mining process, a treasure trove worth hundreds of thousands of dollars!

The Bertrand was originally owned by J.J. Roe & Company in St. Louis, Missouri. Roe and his partners had put together the Idaho & Montana Transportation Line to take supplies up the Missouri River to Ft. Benton and other newly-established towns in Montana Territory. The first steamboats arrived in the Ft. Benton area by 1859 and in the 1860's, goldstrikes in modern day Idaho and Montana opened the floodgates of migration to those areas. Prospectors and settlers created the demand to send steamboats carrying large shipments of supplies to these once sparsely populated places. Although the two month river journey from St. Louis to the Montana Territory was dangerous, a successful shipment might garner the value of the boat. In any event, most of the materials on the Bertrand were insured. Merchants had early discovered that more easily acquired wealth could be had from the pockets of miners, rather than toiling to discover some elusive gold veins.

The goods on board the Bertrand were bound for Ft. Union and the mining towns of Ft. Benton, Hell Gate (modern day Missoula), Deer Lodge, and Virginia City. The Diamond R Transportation Company, also owned by Roe and his group, consisted of oxen trains that traveled a few more hundred miles to these locations from Ft. Benton. Apart from the necessities of clothing, tools, and hardware the Bertrand was also carrying a variety of groceries, including olive oil, mustard and champagne from France; bottled and canned fruits; instant coffee and lemonade; and a large quantity of medicinal bitters, most of which were highly alcoholic: generally, not the kind of inventory one comes to associate with merchants on the U.S. frontier. The collection reflects the long history of Americans conspicuous consumption habits.

Excavation

Using historical documents and a flux gate magnetometer, modern salvors, Sam Corbino and Jesse Pursell discovered the wreck on DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge in 1968. Since the boat was on government property, the salvors agreed under the requirements of the American Antiquities Preservation Act of 1906, to hand all man-made artifacts over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permanent exhibition and preservation in a public museum.

By 1969, the vessel's extant hull was completely excavated from its thirty feet deep, mud tomb under the auspices of National Park Service archeologists. Unfortunately for the salvors, the treasure they sought had eluded them. Insurance Company divers had removed most of the mercury and other valuables in 1865. In spite of this fact, a diversity of tools, clothing, food, and equipment remained in the hold. The Bertrand�s cargo was in remarkably good condition, having been preserved in an anaerobic, only slightly acidic, mud. The collection is a goldmine for researchers of 19th Century material culture.

Artifact Viewing A Visitor Center, built by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1981, accommodates the artifacts from the Bertrand. An environmentally-controlled collection storage area protects the cargo of the boat. Visitors may view this area through a glass wall, 38 feet in length. The collection is stored in an open exhibit storage setting and representative examples of collection objects are displayed near the floor-to-ceiling glass wall.
	A trip through the Visitor Center exhibits and visible storage area reveals the diversity of objects being sent to the Montana goldfields. Indeed, many of the goods from the hull of the Bertrand are not what one would expect to find in the raucous mining towns of the nineteenth century American frontier.
The Visitor Center also contains a conservation laboratory for Bertrand artifact preservation, research library, theater and exhibition galleries. Permanent exhibits discuss the impact steamboat cargoes and passengers brought to the frontier through the building of towns, farming, logging and mining. Each of these pursuits, while assuring prosperity and growth, initially produced a long term adverse effect upon the environment and wildlife habitats. Displays address the history of wildlife refuges, which were created to alleviate these problems. Temporary exhibits include a variety of topics from art shows to interpretive programs.

More Information

For specific information about the Steamboat Bertrand Collection contact the Museum Curator at 712-642-5413. A complete report of the excavation, written by the NPS archeologist who monitored the 1969 excavation is available for purchase, as well as a collection guide. Ask for Jerome Petsche's The Steamboat Bertrand, History, Excavation and Architecture $12.00 cost (includes shipping and handling within the United States) and/or The Bertrand Stores by Leslie Perry Peterson, a 58 page book which describes the cargo artifacts, $7.00 cost (includes postage/handling). Both publications are available as a packet for $17.00. Make check payable to "Eagle Emporium." 1434 316th Lane, Missouri Valley, Iowa 51555.