Old boats and sunken steamboats from the 1800s are now visible. In the 1800s a person could have seen hundreds of steamboats by St. Louis each day people, supplies and goods used the rivers for transport. The average life span of a steamboat was just five years. Some 500-700 operated in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers alone. besides obvious water perils, there was always the danger of boiler explosions, lightning and accidents.
The steamboat Montana sank near St. Charles, Missouri, and it was as large as a football field and extremely lavish, a favorite of the rich passengers.
It is illegal to take items from these uncovered ships as they are owned by the state.
Last year, a piece of the space shuttle Columbia was found in an east Texas lake because of the drought.
A 125-year-old wooden steamer has been found in Michigan.
The World War II minesweeper USS Inaugural has also been seen resting on the exposed river bottom. It was a museum ship that was sunk during the Great Flood of 1993.
Steamboating. -- DaCoot
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