Professor's Article on the Bertrand Steamboat Published on HistoryNet.com

Bellevue University adjunct history Professor Aaron Woodard recently authored an article on the Bertrand steamboat wreck in 1865 and  the century-long salvage efforts for Wild West Magazine. The article is currently featured on the HistoryNet.com home page. 

In the article, Woodard examines newspaper reports of what occurred after the mid-19th paddle-wheel steamer hit a snag in the Missouri River just past DeSoto, Nebraska, and sank in just 10 minutes. His article recounts the salvage efforts that took place immediately following the wreck, a failed effort that took place three decades later, and, finally, a salvage effort led by treasure hunters in 1968. That final effort, conducted more than a century after the Bertrand sank, resulted in the recovery of more than 600 pounds of mercury, as well as ordinary items ranging from tools to clothing to foodstuffs. 

According to Woodard's article, the items recovered from the Bertrand “provide invaluable insight into everyday life in the late 1860s,” and the history of the wreck illustrates the risky steamboat business in the emerging Western United States.