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Missouri River
Archaeological Exploration and Preservation Society (MRAEPS)
The Missouri River
Archaeological Exploration and Preservation Society was founded in 2003 to
help facilitate study and preservation of the history of steamboating on
the Missouri River between 1819 and 1967. To date, we have documented over
1500 different steamboats that made at least one trip on the Missouri
River. The information we are gathering is being compiled into a
comprehensive reference which we hope to eventually make available to
historians, genealogists, and the general public.
Utilizing primary source information such as diaries, shipping documents,
steamboat log-books, and microfilm copies of old newspapers from towns
along the Missouri, we are attempting to make our files as complete and
accurate as possible. This is proving to be quite a challenge. There often
were, over a period of years, several boats by the same name, and
historians who have written about the steamboats have sometimes confused
information and dates on captains, crews, passengers, and incidents which
took place. Much of the previously published information was written from
the way the author remembered it happening. Sorting out the
inconsistencies is a tedious and time-consuming process.
We are also working to document boats which operated on the major
tributaries of the Missouri. The Gasconade, Osage, Kansas (Kaw), and the
Yellowstone rivers all played a part in the river commerce carried on by
steamboats.
This is a daunting task! We
would very much appreciate hearing from anyone whose ancestors were crew
members or passengers aboard a steamboat on the Missouri or its
tributaries. We would love to be able to record and preserve your
ancestor’s story.
We invite you to
Contact Us to share your information or
suggestions.
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