By Don Corrigan
Low water in the Meramec and other Missouri rivers can reveal skeletons of the past, including those of old steamboats. Remains of the good ship Betsy Ann can be found in the Meramec near Kirkwood.
Betsy Ann’s rusty hull can be seen near the Meramec banks in low water across from Emmenegger Park in Kirkwood. This defunct river steamer should not be confused with the Betsy Ann that plies the Mississippi near Biloxi, Miss.
“The boat carried U.S. Mail from Natchez, Mississippi to Bayou Sara, Louisiana,” explained Drew A. Walters, who did research for an article on the Betsy Ann for his Eureka Historical Society Facebook site.
According to Walters, the Betsy Ann changed hands several times through the years. The boat was in three steamboat races in the 1920s in the Ohio River before making it to St. Louis.
The Betsy Ann raced steamboat Chris Greene in 1928 and steamboat Tom Greene in 1929 and 1930. From 1930 to 1931, the boat operated on several different routes from Pittsburgh.
“In 1932, it was sold again and used to push barges,” according to Walters. “In 1940, the top half was demolished in St. Louis and the hull was briefly used by the Wood River Refining Company at Wood River, Illinois.
“She was then sold to the Meramec Power Boat Club, a club based at the Sylvan Beach Resort at 11991 Stoneywood Drive in Sunset Hills,” added Walters. “During the late 1940s, facilities for the club were built on the hull and the boat became an excursion boat for both the club and the resort.”
In 1952-53, the boat sank during a flood. The boat’s carcass has sat in the Meramec River near the Meramec Greenway since that flood more than 70 years ago.
Two long-time Kirkwood writers, Vicki and James Erwin, authored, “Steamboat Disasters of the Lower Missouri River.” The book lists 56 individual boats that sank in the Missouri River.
“We’re surprised to hear about a steamboat on the Meramec,” said Vicki Erwin. “The only other rivers in the state we’ve heard about having steamboats, besides the Missouri, is the Osage. And that’s because there was a site on the Osage River where they built steamboats.
Betsy Ann Remains.
The Meramec’s Betsy Ann has receive a lot of ink in such publications as the Waterways Journal, the Marshall Scholar, and a book by Sam Aufmuth, “Log of the Betsy Ann,” written by a former owner of the boat.
Historical accounts note the boat was constructed by the Iowa Iron Works that used an iron hull measuring 165 feet in length by 33 feet wide. The boat’s original owner, Rufus F. Learned, named the boat for his wife.
Jo Schaper of Pacific, a river historian and chair of the Meramec River Recreation Association, said she knows of another steamboat that sunk in the Meramec River east of St. James.
Schaper said the iron works near St. James tried to use steamboats in the Meramec to get their product to St. Louis. The Maramec Ironworks tried to use the Dove and the Petrel to carry iron loads in 1847.
“The Petrel caught the river cresting and proceeded safely down river,” said Schaper. “The Dove, for reasons unknown, was delayed, and started out with the river falling. It made it as far as Fish Trap near Robertsville State Park, where it ran aground.
“After the next heavy rain it made it about a mile below Pacific, where it lodged again for a year, before a heavy enough rain dislodged it,” said Schaper. “It made it another couple of miles, turned sideways, and was broken in two by the force of the river.”
Sunken steamboats found in Missouri have been making the news lately, but they’re boats on the Missouri River – not the Meramec. More than 200 vessels met their end between 1820 and 1890 in the Missouri River.
Some of the vessels, such as the Steamboat Arabia, have been recovered for artifacts or for museum display. Steamboat Arabia has been exhibited at a museum in Kansas City, but is reportedly now up for sale.
St. Charles has expressed interest in displaying the Arabia on its riverfront. It’s doubtful that Kirkwood would be interested in exhibiting the Betsy Ann on its Greentree Park riverfront. The Betsy Ann is literally a rust bucket.
Environmental Echo 