Riverboats In Front of Our House: 1871

It has been many years since steamboats have sailed up and down the Big Sandy, but for a time it was a common sight. I’m going through documents I have saved from the web, and came across this piece.

It is interesting because the following incident happened right in front of our house. The shoals in front of our house are known as ‘Wild Goose Shoals’ and this spot is mentioned in the following article.

I hope you enjoy reading this little anectdote from the riverboat days!

BIG SANDY RIVERBOATS:

The following article, written by W.D. O’Neal, appeared in the Ashland Daily Independent newspaper on March 15, 1940.

"The ‘Dew Drop’ lacked the lighting conveniences of boats of the present day. It ran at night by light from burning pine knots in iron baskets on the bow on each side, and pine torches were used in receiving and discharging passengers and freight. The river was the main artery of commerce and travel. All roads led to the river. It was the highway for those moving out and those moving in to this great valley.

The ‘Dew Drop’ register of April 20, 1871 shows among the passengers leaving Catlettsburg and their destinations, the following: Pete Marcum and W.M. Marcum, Mouth of Blaine; John Caldwell, Whites Creek; J.G. Burgess, Burgess Landing; W.M. Cains, Jake Rice, Rolen Burns, F.T.D Wallace, Mrs. John Rice, J.N.See [John N. SEE], John Hatcher and Mont Goble, Louisa, KY. Other passengers were rigistered for points up the river.

As interesting as steamboating may have been in the 60′s & 70′s on the Big Sandy, it was not always smooth sailing. There are several shoals where the current is too swift for a boat to stem its engine power and it was necessary to "warp" through. A line was pulled along the waters edge and fastened to some solid object, the other end was wound around the capstan, and the boat moved on by a combination of manpower.

Sometimes there were amusing incidents. On one occasion the ‘Dew Drop’ was entering Wild Goose Shoal. The deck hands took the line and were wading up stream to make the tie when suddenly they stopped as they ran into a trot line. The mate yelled, ‘hurry up’. One of the men replied, ‘Alright captain, but you’ll have to wait ’til I git these here d–m fishhooks out of my britches!"
Had our house been situated where it currently is at the mouth of Pure Water Hollow, and had my family been here, I’m sure our dogs would have been barking and we would have been down at the river to see what all the commotion was!

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While I’m on this topic, I thought I would record another bit of info I discovered while researching our shoals. In 1871 the US Corp of Engineers did work to reduce the shoals in front of our house to make riverboat traffic more accessible.

I recently purchased a 14 foot john boat and I am looking forward to using it down on our river. I think it will be interesting to explore the waterways that were once so important that even the government was concerned about it’s condition!

Here is part of the report I found with everything deleted except our part of the river. I have also left in some of the mis-spellings, etc.

"Captain: I respectfully submit my report of operations on the improvement of Big Sandy River, West Virginia and Kentucky, during the months of August, September, October, and November, 1871), at that timo under the direction of Major William E. Merrill, United States Corps of Engineers.

Operations were commenced August 25, and continued until November 20. The work was done entirely by hired labor, and the force employed was divided into three parties—one party on the main river and one party on each fork….

…LOUISA FORK.

On this fork, from Louisa, Ky., to Piketon, Ky., a distance of 86 1/2 miles, -47 shoals were improved, as follows: Twist and Wind, Twin Brother und Contrary Shoals, by blasting and breaking up the bowlders and confining the water to one channel, by means of low wing-dams built from the blasted rock.

Griffith‘s Creek Sand Bar, by changing the channel over bar. Fish Trap, Graves, Bumble Bee, Joe Border’s Ripple, and several small shoals near Lost Creek, Chesnut, Jas. Davis, Murray Shoals, Nathan Border’s Ripple, and Little White House Shoals, Big White House, Vanhoose, Red House, Wild Goose, Ward’s and Greasy Shoals, were improved by blasting large rock, and removing small stones and gravel from the chutes, and repairing the old wing-dams,

The following were improved by constructing riprap wing-dams: L. Preston Ripple, Win. Preston Ripple, Jas. Proston Ripple, Búllalo Shoals (j of a mile long), and Twin Maple Shoals.

The following were improved by removing rock, straightening the chutes, and making the channel wide enough for the navigation of push-bouts, the only boats with which it is possible to ascend the river in low-water: Purgatory Ripple, Miller’s Creek, Bird and Preston Shoals, Parter Hippie, Auxier, Hager, and Wireman’s Shoals, Bay Ripple and Moody Shoals; Abbot Shoals by removing stone from channel and cutting down a sunken barge.

Middle Creek Sand Bar by removing snags and timber piles, half buried in the sand, in order that the river might resume its natural bed. Welt, Davidson, Joy, Strattoii’n, and Long Shoals were improved by blasting and removing bowlders and large stone from the rhaunol."

Many of those names of the various locations and shoals are familiar, although we don't know where many of them exactly are yet. I wonder when the last time was that the government dredged our river? I don't think it has been touched for many decades, but I sort of like the idea of the river going back to the natural state it would have been in when the first pioneers and Indians traveled it!