Skip to main content

Riverboats

In 1865, the riverboat hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank on the way to goldfields in Montana. Its hull, discovered in a Nebraska cornfield, gave up over 200,000 artifacts.

It would be a risky trip for the two young mothers, each of them bringing along two young children. On a beautiful spring morning, the first of April, 1865, Caroline Millard and Mary Atchison boarded the steamboat Bertrand at the docks in Omaha, Nebraska.

Enjoy our work? Help us keep going.

Now in its 75th year, American Heritage relies on contributions from readers like you to survive. You can support this magazine of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it by donating today.

Donate