Steamboat Bertrand

The salvagers Sam Corbino and Jesse Pursell found the hull in 1968, and the dig that followed emptied a hold packed for the Montana gold camps. Out came dried and salted beef, mutton and pork, oysters, pepper sauce, French mustard, peaches and strawberries, whiskey, brandied cherries and medicine bottles, more than 3,000 pieces of clothing including 137 men's coats in seven styles, clocks, mirrors, blasting powder, picks and shovels. Canned food tested in 1974 was still safe to eat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service keeps the collection at the refuge museum near Missouri Valley, Iowa.

What the plaque says

Steamboat Bertrand During the mid-nineteenth century, steamboats played a major role in the settlement and develop- ment of the nation. In March 1865 the fully laden sternwheeler Bertrand left St. Louis under the command of Captain James Yore. The cargo of general merchandise and mercury, used in the refinement of gold, was bound for the frontier mining towns near Fort Benton, Montana Territory, at the headwaters of the Missouri. On April 1, 1865 the 161-foot vessel struck a snag less than a mile from the village of DeSoto, Nebraska Territory. The site of the wreck is now part of the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. Although the boat sank in ten minutes, no lives were lost. The Bertrand was one of more than 400 steamboats wrecked on the Missouri during the riverboat era. In 1967 salvors in cooperation with the federal government began a successful search for the Bertrand. The excavation was completed in October 1969 after 150 tons of cargo had been removed. The varied and precisely dated contents provide important research and interpretative resources after 103 years. On March 24, 1969 the historic importance of the Bertrand was recognized with its entry into the National Register of Historic Places. Daughters of The American Colonists Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Atkinson State Historical Park — 4.6 mi
  The first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri, a garrison town of more than a thousand people on Council Bluff from 1820 to 1827, rebuilt on its own foundations.
• Winter Quarters and the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery — 13 mi
  The Latter-day Saint camp of 1846 to 1848 on Omaha land in what is now Florence, where hundreds died the first winter, and the cemetery and trail center beside it.
• Malcolm X Birthsite — 16 mi
  The North Omaha lot where Malcolm Little was born in May 1925 and his family was driven out by the Klan, saved by Rowena Moore and now planned as a cultural center.
• Joslyn Art Museum — 19 mi
  Omaha's free art museum, a 1931 Art Deco memorial with two modern pavilions, and the keeper of Karl Bodmer's watercolors from the upper Missouri in 1833 and 1834.

More markers nearby

• DeSoto Townsite — 2.6 mi
• Fort Atkinson — 4.5 mi
• Fort Calhoun Schools at Washington Square — 4.6 mi
• Lewis and Clark Campsite: July 30-August 2, 1804 — 4.6 mi