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Steamboating on the Muskingum
On March 9, 1836, residents along the river from Dresden to Marietta shot their muzzle-loaders into the air and set bonfires in farmyards and on street corners to celebrate the passage of an act by the Ohio Legislature which provided for the improvement of the Muskingum River. It authorized the construction of locks and dams so that steamboats could run up the river as far as Dresden. This Muskingum Improvement was a branch of the vast Ohio Canal system which was under construction from 1825 to 1847. Prior to this time, the shallowness of the Muskingum made steam boating unsafe except at high water.
The state spent $1,627,018 over the next five years for the construction of locks and dams at ten sites between Zanesville and Marietta. In addition, the state built a dam and lock in the Muskingum between Copeland Island and the mouth of Symmes Creek in 1838. When this dam later collapsed, it was replaced two miles downstream by the Ellis Dam in 1910.
These improvements are now among the oldest on American rivers. Huge sandstone blocks from eighteen to twenty-four inches thick form the lock walls. Lock width varies from thirty-three to thirty-five feet, and the length from 157 to 160 feet. After completion of the Muskingum Improvement in October 1841, the river was navigable as far north as Dresden except when ice closed it. Although pilots of small steamboats ventured as far north as Coshocton, there was no regular traffic above Dresden because the water above the dams still was too shallow for steamboats.
During the romantic period of steamboating on the Muskingum, boats lowered their gangplanks at any clearing. Their whistles brought people running to landings. Farmers along the river
welcomed a mode of travel that avoided the muddy roads. Roustabouts loaded their corn, wheat, hay, cattle, pigs, and chickens for shipment to distant markets.
Steamboats carried all the passengers along the river from 1841 to 1888. In 1842, the first full year of traffic after the locks were completed, 7,000 passengers walked down the gangplanks. Sixteen years later, the steamboats carried 17,586 passengers. In 1846 a company of Muskingum County volunteers left on the May Queen for the Mexican War and in "Forty Nine" many men along the river started by boat for the California goldfields. Steamboats carried passengers to family reunions, picnics, circuses, excursions, and concerts.
Floating patent medicine store at McConnelsville landing, circa 1905
Muskingum steamboat traffic had its share of collisions and wrecks. Several boats struck snags and sank. The most tragic accident occurred at the Beverly Lock where, late on the afternoon of November 12, 1852, the boiler of the Buckeye Belle exploded. Twenty-four persons were killed. Fragments of flesh and splinters of wood were scattered for half a mile. A bronze plaque in Beverly Cemetery marks the grave of the unidentified dead.
Steamboat transportation stimulated industry in the Muskingum Valley. For the first time factories in river cities could send their products to distant markets by fast and reasonably priced freight. Coshocton sent axles and springs, Zanesville shipped portable sawmills to the West and from Marietta, stoves, leather, and chairs were exported. From 1822 to 1900 Marietta was once again a ship building town; 163 steamboats were built in that period.
Steamers had a monopoly on freight traffic in the valley before railroads were built. Rival boats competed to reach the wharves first – and the freight was worth fighting for. The collector at the port of Zanesville reported shipments in 1848 of:
1,923,254 pounds of stoneware
398,472 pounds of bacon and pork
309,948 pounds of pig iron
105,800 barrels of flour
22,258 of salt
25,383 bushels of wheat and lesser amounts of other grains
substantial amounts of tobacco, glass, lard and butter
In 1886, Italian work crews laid rail down the west side of the river from Zanesville to Malta and two years later the line was extended to Marietta. The first train on June 30, 1888, was greeted by welcome signs, speeches, whistles, and cannon salutes. The railroad was soon well patronized because it was faster than steamboats and could operate all year around. By the turn of the century, there was standing room only in the passenger cars.
The continuous decline in steamboat traffic over a period of thirty years meant that revenue from tolls at the locks and dams fell similarly. As a result of the decrease in revenue, the state neglected repair of the locks and dams. In 1886, the Ohio Legislature ceded the Muskingum Improvement (Dresden to Marietta) to the U.S. government which, by 1900, developed the Muskingum between Zanesville and Marietta into one of the best canalized rivers in the country by 1900.
Steamboats continued to keep regular schedules until the 1920's. More than 300 boats operated on the Muskingum over an 85-year period. Older people still remember nostalgically the Zanetta, the Sonoma, the Lorena, and the Valley Gem. It is believed that the Richland was the last steamboat to travel upriver. It docked at Zanesville on September 12, 1934. The musical steam whistles of the stern wheelers became only a memory.
Source - compiled from: The Muskingum River: A History and Guide by Norris F. Schneider, published by The Ohio Historical Society, 1968.
LeilaN |
Latest page update: made by LeilaN
, May 18 2008, 10:35 AM EDT
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| porterbm | Showboat | 4 | Feb 26 2008, 11:07 AM EST by LeilaN | ||
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Thread started: Feb 8 2008, 9:06 PM EST
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The story says that the last steamboat docked in 1934 . I remember a show boat docked at Stockport about 1940 .Grandpa took us to see the show .That`s something I`ll never forget . Perhaps this boat had been fitted with a modern engine . Does any else remember this ,or what the name of it was? Bernie Porter
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