Artifacts from an 1865 Missouri River sinking fill visitor center at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

NEAR BLAIR, Neb. (KOLN) - A steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1865 is the centerpiece of an exhibit at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge visitor center, where thousands of well-preserved artifacts from the vessel remain on display.

The steamboat Bertrand was built in 1864 in Wheeling, West Virginia. It traveled down the Missouri River in late November of that year and spent the early winter months in St. Louis before being sold to the Montana and Idaho Transportation Company in early 1865.

The vessel departed St. Louis in March 1865, bound for Montana, where gold had been discovered and supplies were needed. It reached Omaha before continuing north. On the morning of April 1, 1865, the Bertrand left North Omaha, traveled approximately 22 river miles north of the city, struck a sunken log and sank.

All passengers and crew escaped safely. The pilot steered the vessel toward a sandbar near the Nebraska side of the river before it went down.

An insurance salvage team later arrived at the site, but a second boat owned by the same company sank nearby before the Bertrand could be fully recovered. The salvage team shifted focus to the newer vessel. By the time they returned to the Bertrand, it had been covered in silt and was written off as a total loss.

The Bertrand remained submerged and buried from 1865 until approximately 1968, when two Omaha men — Jesse Purcell and Sam Corbino — secured a government contract to excavate it. The site had by then become part of a federal wildlife refuge, requiring federal authorization for the dig.

Excavation took place over the summers and falls of 1968 and 1969. The recovered collection was temporarily housed near what is now the refuge headquarters before being moved to the current visitor center building, which opened in 1981.

The collection on display contains the full cargo of the Bertrand, including clothing, footwear, foodstuffs, dishes and munitions the vessel was carrying for the federal government. Mining equipment recovered from the boat includes thousands of long-handled shovels, blasting fuses, and mortar and pestles.

Artifacts are visible through a large glass wall, behind which shelves and cabinets hold the collection.

Bill Cantine, who is a museum specialist at the refuge, said the cargo was in exceptional condition when excavated. The silt that covered the wreck removed oxygen from the surrounding mud, preserving the items.

“When they dug the stuff up, it was in brand new condition,” Cantine said. “It looked perfect.”

The visitor center about five miles east of Blair in Iowa, though the Bertrand sank on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River.

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