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Colby Buchanan, US Coast Guard, via AP
The drought revealed this WWII minesweeper, seen here on Nov. 28 on the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Mo.
ST. LOUIS -- From sunken steamboats to a millennium-old map engraved in rock, the drought-drained rivers of the nation's midsection are offering a rare and fleeting glimpse into years gone by.
Lack of rain has left many rivers at low levels unseen for decades, creating problems for river commerce and recreation and raising concerns about water supplies and hydropower if the drought persists into next year, as many fear.
But for the curious, the receding water is offering an occasional treasure trove of history.
An old steamboat is now visible on the Missouri River near St. Charles, Mo., and other old boats nestled on river bottoms are showing up elsewhere. A World War II minesweeper, once moored along the Mississippi River as a museum at St. Louis before it was torn away by floodwaters two decades ago, has become visible — rusted but intact.
Perhaps most interesting, a rock containing what is believed to be an ancient map has emerged in the Mississippi River in southeast Missouri.
The rock contains etchings believed to be up to 1,200 years old. It was not in the river a millennium ago, but the changing course of the waterway now normally puts it under water — exposed only in periods of extreme drought. Experts are wary of giving a specific location out of fear that looters will take a chunk of the rock or scribble graffiti on it.
"It appears to be a map of prehistoric Indian villages," said Steve Dasovich, an anthropology professor at Lindenwood University in St. Charles. "What's really fascinating is that it shows village sites we don't yet know about."
Old boats are turning up in several locations, including sunken steamboats dating to the 19th century.
That's not surprising considering the volume of steamboat traffic that once traversed the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Dasovich said it wasn't uncommon in the 1800s to have hundreds of steamboats pass by St. Louis each day, given the fact that St. Louis was once among the world's busiest inland ports. The boats, sometimes lined up two miles deep and four boats wide in both directions, carried not only people from town to town but goods and supplies up and down the rivers.
Sinkings were common among the wooden vessels, which often were poorly constructed.
"The average lifespan of a steamboat on the Missouri River was five years," Dasovich said. "They were made quickly. If you could make one run from St. Louis to Fort Benton, Mont., and back, you've paid for your boat and probably made a profit. After that, it's almost like they didn't care what happened."
What often happened, at least on the Missouri River, was the boat would strike an underwater tree that had been uprooted and become lodged in the river bottom, tearing a hole that would sink the ship. Dasovich estimated that the remains of 500 to 700 steamboats sit at the bottom of the Missouri River, scattered from its mouth in Montana to its convergence with the Mississippi near St. Louis.
The number of sunken steamboats on the Mississippi River is likely about the same, Dasovich said. Steamboat traffic was far heavier on the Mississippi, but traffic there was and is less susceptible to river debris.
Boiler explosions, lightning strikes and accidents also sunk many a steamboat. One of the grander ones, the Montana, turned up this fall on the Missouri River near St. Charles. The elaborate steamer was as long as a football field with lavish touches aimed at pleasing its mostly wealthy clientele. It went to its watery grave after striking a tree below the surface in 1884.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers urge sightseers to stay away from any shipwreck sites. Sandbars leading to them can be unstable and dangerous, and the rusted hulks can pose dangers for those sifting through them.
Plus, taking anything from them is illegal. By law, sunken ships and their goods belong to the state where they went down.
While unusual, it's not unprecedented for low water levels to reveal historic artifacts.
Last year, an officer who patrols an East Texas lake discovered a piece of the space shuttle Columbia, which broke apart and burned on re-entry in 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard. And the remains of a wooden steamer built 125 years ago recently were uncovered in a Michigan waterway because of low levels in the Great Lakes.
But treasure hunters expecting to find Titanic-like souvenirs in rivers will likely be disappointed if they risk exploring the lost boats.
"It's not like these wrecks are full of bottles, dishes, things like that," said Mark Wagner, an archaeologist at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. "If there was anything on there in the first place, the river current pretty much stripped things out of these wrecks."
Such was the case with the USS Inaugural, a World War II minesweeper that for years served as a docked museum on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The Great Flood of 1993 ripped the Inaugural from its mooring near the Gateway Arch. It crashed into the Poplar Street bridge, and then sank.
In September, the rusted Inaugural became visible again, though now nothing more than an empty, orange-rusted hulk lying on its side not far from a south St. Louis casino.
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Sounds like a good time to clean out the rivers.
LOL
These are not looters, they are saboteurs -punks - if they try to do graffito.
In the spirit of giving, I certainly wish we could give most of the rain we have received over the past 25 days to our fellows in the drought-stricken areas of America. Oregon is about to float away; the most rainfall in the month of December in the greater Portland area since records began to be kept more than 100-years ago, ...and still raining and days of rain to come before it stops!
Say, does anyone here have a good set of building plans for an Ark ??? (...And no, before you ask, we already thought of that. Genesis just gives overall dimensions)????
@Robert in Oregon, I wish Oregon would float away, that way SW WA wouldn't have to put up with all the mess Portland makes in the area. But yes, it has rained a bit this month, and we have several days to go before this month is over.
Robert, I'd gladly donate the rain we've had in coastal WA., and SallyAnn? you should have a cup of coffee before posting..you're kind of mean in the morning.
The map of the Native American villages should definitely be kept secret from treasure hunters. It should also be shared for research with Native American historians and elders, especially as some of the villages indicated on the map have never been found.
Who knows? History may be about to endure another change.
I find it repetitively interesting that within yet another 20 yr period, the overabundance of water drops to drought. Naturally the identical drastic cycles have continued as such, for the existence of our earth. Re; the uncontrolled flooding in the early 1900's, when thousands of junk cars were placed along the river banks to 'control' erosion? I recall the 1970's floods covering farms and fields for twenty miles surrounding the river.
Remember the discovery of the 1800's steamboats, in farm fields many miles from the river's latest (at the time) channel? The rivers are like living serpents, wriggling their uncontrolled courses across their own 'groomed' land at their own gravity/terrain changing choosing. Love earth's 'Climate'.. forever 'changing', forever fascinating. Forever wild and 'Uncontrollable".
Noble indeed. To clean the river of detritus, By the time All EPA regulations/restrictions were met, Lawyers of all interests agreed to taxpayer funded financial settlements, and contractors bids were bureaucratically sorted through... the drought cycle would end and return to massive flooding. Thus hindering the removal/salvage, leading to extensive cost overruns, accepted by the voting public as only a natural minor financial setback to be rectified by additional taxpayer funding. Of course acceptable, because union labor would be mandated, improving 'new' job creation. Noble, very noble indeed..
What sunk the mine sweeper? That would be a better story.
So.... is anything being done to recover and preserve any of these ships??
Each one should be towed over to the shores at least if not removed completely. They always endanger the current ships and are litter. Any antiques recovered should be sold to help pay for the operation.
Clean up the rivers.
In actuality disturbing the runoff areas, and as mentioned, the 'antiquities therein' are Illegal, as a Santa Fe NM contractor recently found out. He cleaned the locally/illegally used garbage dump from 'his' dry arroyo and was sued/fined by the local arm of the EPA, for 'Disturbing' a watershed. Careful what laws/actions you demand from omnipotent govt. Directed by self serving bureaucrats, they Will spin around in their skin like a Badger and viciously Bite You.
We'd better hope it's just a fleeting glimpse.
agreed...
people are suffering from the drought
Just keep repeating:
There is no global warming...
There is no global warming...
There is no global warming...
Yep joe it has never in the history of earth been so warm (satire) Well except for the vast Majority of the earth's history. In fact, Seldom has the earth had 'Ice Caps'. Only 4 to 5 relatively brief periods, over the course of 4.5 billion years has earth had what we 'short timers' call, 'normal' ice coverage. Dinosaurs (one of the most successful forms of life on earth) lived for their amazingly extended time period with NO frozen climate... anywhere on earth. They also experienced 'Warm Climate' more than once, in their various forms. The greatest extinctions occurred during 'Ice Ages'. Naturally, being in entirely human bliss, only our own relatively brief 'Interglacial', do we adore, consider perfect and forever un-susceptible to 'change'.
It becomes obvious as the water recedes that the government uses the water to hide junk. If anyone knew how much crap has been dumped in the Gulf of Mex. they would have a fit.
You think it is just the government? Look at what industry has been doing all these years.
damn warren that's classified material. the the cops will coming to see you for letting that out
@ thunder.. my bad lol
They should let someone salvage the wood from these old steamboats. Some of the old pine recycled into heart pine flooring can sell for as much as $20 a sq/ft. It's not doing any good sitting in the river.
stc1993-----exactly right-people are making a fortune on the cape fear river in north carolina salvaging old timber.
Salvaging would clean up the river, and the states could sell salvage rights. However, I can also envision environmentalists claiming that dragging the stuff out would be the same as tearing up an artificial reef in the Gulf of Mexico.
Given that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers routinely dredges the river to keep it navigable, I don't think anyone would be too upset about having some of the wrecks hauled out of there. Most of the Mississippi is more like a big canal - it bears little resemblance to the natural river it once was.
In GA you've got to have a $1000 permit to remove old logs from the rivers.
relics - cool, drought - sad
Tow them to shore and let people salvage them.
MC Gusto! Obviously you have never seen a sunken ship or you would not have made a idiot out of yourself making such an insane comment.Here's a clue,watch National Geographic Channel once in a while.Of course,that will require you to not be on your ifone all day!
I sure hope they don't find a skeleton with cement boots on. I was sure I dropped my ex wife in the deepest part of the channel.
At first when they started referring to the lost ships as "rusty hulks",I thought they were referring to Evita(Hillary).Then it hit me,she is just Secretary of State shipmaster who is lost at sea along with our foreign policy!My bad!
I sure miss W and co... we could have been in 3 or 4 more wars by now!
Sure, bring in politics. Give it a rest, huh?
@maso98, forget your meds again?
"Dasovich estimated that the remains of 500 to 700 steamboats sit at the bottom of the Missouri River, scattered from its mouth in Montana to its convergence with the Mississippi near St. Louis."
The mouth of a river is where it empties into a lake, sea, ocean, or another river. A river begins at its source and ends at a mouth. Thus the Missouri River's source is in Montana, and its mouth is near St. Louis.
The mouth of a stream is where it enters a larger body of water.The body of water it enters can be a lake,sea,ocean or river but it must be a Larger body of water in to what it dumps!I think it is the other way around.The Montana is the source of the Missouri River.The Big Mo converges with the larger river,the Mississippi River at its mouth.
The source of the Missouri River is at the confluence of the Jefferson and Madison Rivers near Three Forks, Montana. So far as I know, there is no Montana River. A smaller river that enters a larger is called a tributary. I cannot think of an instance where a larger body of water would enter into a smaller body.
I would have loved a picture of the ancient map. Wish that would have been included with this article.
I got tonight.Once it dries good,i'll post it on the net.It's a beauty!I guess this is where I admit I live 1500 miles from the place and i'm lieing.No sense in having my front door rammed by some strom troopers not smart enough to figure out that logistics prevent me from doing that.Guarantee you,someone is looking right now for it!
Google it
Don't hold your breath waiting to see the map. The article said it identified sites that were previously unknown. The looters would be there almost instantly if they had any clues. It's probably bad enough that the story even broke about its existence, as I'm sure that 'collectors' are using every means available to locate that map right now.
they did that here not to long ago. A dinosaur skeleton was found in the river bank & someone found where it was at & took some of the vertebra & messed up the site for meanness. It's a shame.
Not that I don't truly appreciate history, I love it but they (Park Service, archaeologists, need to remove the rock before A) some pinheads find it and deface it, B) Preserve it for history for everyone.
Boats in the rivers, they're wooden obstructions on the rivers, dangerous at different times for different reasons. They serve no historical value covered by water and who's to say what may or may not be a historical find when these boats are removed. While people back then did do salvage, technology has provided greater means. This is employment for as long as the drought lasts and a perfect opportunity to clean up two major waterways. Jobs jobs jobs people, even if only for a short time!!!!
they don't want people to remove these old boats? it seems like you would want to remove them! you know there was ferry's that took trains back and forth across the river, if one of them was to sink that would also there would also be locomotives in the rivers :)
I would liked to have seen a picture of the stone map.
A message to MSNBC and AP:
I wish you guys would understand that the incredible technology afforded to you by publishing omn line is wasted in a story like this. You discuss in detail all the interesting things now found in a receding river....where are the pictures. I guarantee 100% of the people who read this article thought they would SEE pictures not just read descriptions. You may as well have published in print. The 'net is interactive....use it, please!
Mass amount of guns and bodies from the mafia and all criminal organizations are now showing up.
"By law, sunken ships and their goods belong to the state where they went down."
What law? Federal law? Waht kind of law is that?
And how did a mind sweeper end up near St Louis?
Create a few hundred jobs to pull this crap out of the rivers.