The main town of my MacLarens of Boundary
Mountains series is located on the shores of the Feather River, in the
fictional town of Conviction. Did you know Feather River does exist? In the 19th
century, the river played a critical role in moving passengers and cargo in
northern California.
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| Feather River Basin |
Marysville and Yuba City intersect at
the glassy blue Feather River. During the Wild West gold rush, many
steamships, with their magnificent turning paddle wheels, traveled up and down
Feather River between San Francisco, Sacramento, and Marysville.
The gold rush transformed Feather River
from a yawning waterway of crude canoes, small sailboats, and whaleboats to
a busy, bustling route of fast moving, smoke puffing, passenger filled, steam
powered boats.
The first steamboat to travel down Feather
River was a small sternwheel steamer, the
Linda, in 1849. When a native tribe saw this strange boat move down the
river without a sail or anyone paddling as it huffed and puffed, they fled to
the woods as if it was an evil spirit. When they noticed it land at a white
settlement and saw those people weren’t afraid, they went to get a better look,
exclaiming how much they liked the new boat.
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| 19th Century Steamship |
In 1850, Captain E.C. M. Chadwick steered
a small sidewheel steamer, the Lawrence,
to Marysville, bringing people and supplies. Steamboats were a
highly profitable business. Thousands upon thousands of forty-niners, mostly
young men, booked passage, seeking gold for the taking. However, some
passengers were merchants and business owners who came to house, feed, and
entertain the gold seekers. Hard working merchants actually prospered much more
than most prospectors looking for quick riches. And many failed miners became
settlers.
However, traveling the Feather River
wasn’t a walk in the rose garden. A serious problem was discovered in 1851 that
threatened these golden days for Marysville and Yuba City. There were Snags
imbedded in the river bottom and if a steamer stuck or ran onto a snag it could
severely damage the boat, even cause it to sink. That could have put an end to
all the lucrative traffic up and down the Feather and Yuba rivers, which would
have been a tremendous blow to Marysville.
The prominent citizens and businessmen of the town weren’t going to let
that happen. They called a meeting and agreed to pay by subscription to get rid
of the snags.
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| Feather River Basin |
The contract was signed, the work
commenced and was quickly finished before the rainy season began. However, some
subscribers didn’t promptly cover their share of the payment. This left the
citizens that paid a bit perturbed. All money due was collected, through firm,
tenacious effort.
But even on a snag free river, there were
inherent dangers with steamships. Any number of issues could cause problems:
if a boiler failed, if a steam drum blew, if an engineer didn’t lift the safety
valve as he closed the throttle…just to name a few.
On August 16, 1851, the steamer Fawn
exploded, it rocketed sky high out of the river with a deafening roar several
miles below Marysville. And if that wasn’t bad enough steamships
often had dare devil crewmen hell bent on proving their boat was the best. This
led to dangerous stunts like racing steamships.
Steamships continued providing services
on the Feather River into the late 19th century.
Please feel free to comment
on this post below!
Brodie’s
Gamble, book two in the MacLarens of Boundary Mountain is now avaible.
2 comments:
Interesting. When most people think of steamboat travel they think of the Mississippi, It's good to know it was just as important on the Feather River, Thanks for posting,
What a great story. You find so many interesting topics from the old days. Thanks Julie for sharing.
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