150th Anniversary of the Sinking of Steamboat Bertrand

Canadian geese at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

Near Missouri Valley, Iowa on the boarder of Nebraska and Iowa is a Fish and Wildlife Service site called the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge's main purpose is to serve as a stopover for migrating ducks and geese during fall and spring migrations between the Arctic nesting grounds and Gulf Coast wintering areas. Typically 500,000 snow geese and 75,000 ducks migrate through each year.
  
You wouldn't think that a wildlife refuge had anything to do with archaeology and in most cases you would be right, but not this time. DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is located along an oxbow of the Missouri River. The Missouri River has over 200 known steamboat wrecks and one happens to be on the refuge.

Bertrand excavation in progress

This steamboat named the Bertrand was heading toward a mining town in Montana, but on April 1, 1865 it hit a snag. The boat was brought toward shore and the passengers were evacuated before it sank. For the 150th commemoration of this event, one of the conservators of the artifacts found on board the Bertrand, Ronald Switzer, gave a talk about his research on the artifacts, the history of the boat and passengers on board.

For many years, treasure hunters looked for this shipwreck thinking that there would be gold, mercury (used in the mining process), and whiskey casks. After many attempts to locate the ship it was finally found in 1968, over one hundred years after it first sank. Since it was located on government property these salvagers had to comply with the Antiquities Act of 1906. So they wrote up a contract where they would be allowed to keep the mercury, gold and whiskey casks found on the wreck and all artifacts would belong to the Fish and Wildlife Service for permanent protection.

Unfortunately, in the late 1960's very little had been done in the field of freshwater artifact conservation. The practices used for saltwater conservation are not effective for items submerged in freshwater, therefore many experimental techniques were used on objects to preserve the various materials found on the Bertrand. Luckily the majority of the items were preserved in near pristine condition due to innovative conservation techniques and the anaerobic conditions of the river mud.

Location of excavation site

After two summer of excavating over 250,000 artifacts were discovered. This makes it the largest intact collection of Civil War era artifacts. These artifacts included clothing, household items, tools, canned food, and ammunition. The textile artifacts are of special interest since the techniques used to preserve them left them in near pristine contention. Costume designers, quilters and other people interested in Civil War period fabrics and stitching techniques examine these artifacts for authenticity. While these items are priceless, the salvagers did not find their treasure. They left with only 9 containers worth of mercury since no whiskey casks and only ornamental gold was found in the wreck.

Bertrand exhibit at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

The current visitor center was built in 1981 and these wonderful objects were put on public display. The items are located in a glass storage room which allows visitors to see not only the items on display, but also how the rest of the collection is stored.

If you are ever in the area, I recommend visiting the refuge to see this mixture of history and nature.