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Historic Shipwrecks on Steamboat
Slough off the Sacramento River
http://snugharbor.net/images2010/Steamboat_Slough-Sacramento_shipwrecks.pdf
See below for other links to
sections of older books in PDF that chronicle activities on
Steamboat Slough
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http://snugharbor.net/images-historic/paddle_wheels1c.pdf
http://snugharbor.net/images-historic/paddle_wheels2-c.pdf
http://snugharbor.net/images2011/Hutchings_1871_sacramento_
river_steamboat_slough_san_joaquin_descriptions.pdf
http://snugharbor.net/images2010/Steamboat_Slough-Sacramento_shipwrecks.pdf
1895 Cyclist's map
http://ryerisland.com/images/maps/historic/1895_cyclers_map.jpg
1897 map
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http://ryerisland.com/images/maps/historic/ryer1897.gif
Recorded
land records for the peninsula known as Snug Harbor
1875 Land Grant map for the island that became Snug Harbor
Ryer Island
was a
naturally-formed island area of the Delta, but was called
Sutter and Merritt on the first official maps of the area
between 1840 1860. By the late 1860's it was called
Ryer, and had received ongoing improvements to its levees in
the early 1900's, 1930's and so on. As early as 1852
writers noted there were "Snug little cabins on Steamboat
Slough"! Ships captains wrote in their ship logs about
seeing "flickering campfires" along the banks, and about
being stuck on the sandbars at Hog's Back Shoal for twelve
hours while they waited for higher tides.
One of the first water projects
in California done by the agency that would become part of
the US Army Corps of Engineers was to make a very sturdy
retaining wall at the north end of Steamboat Slough for
tie-off by the paddie wheelers. There are some REALLY
funny but sad stories of the antics of the paddlewheel
captains on Steamboat Slough!
*new*(see
Paddle Wheelers #1 and
Paddle Wheelers #2)
There was a period when
Steamboat Slough was almost impassable for the larger ships
because the silt from mining in the foothills washed down
the Sacramento River with winter and spring runoff, and
literally filled up Steamboat Slough. But dredging of
the slough opened it to navigation again. When the
federal government agreed by 1917 legislation to assist
California in building more secure levees and dredging key
rivers of the Delta, Ryer Island and Steamboat Slough were
included in the major project. Hence, the levees of
Ryer Island are listed as "Project Levees" and Steamboat
Slough is one of the rivers to be maintained for navigation.
At the time the small island became a peninsula attached to
Ryer Island, it was called "Martin's Island"
Below are sections of maps from 1845 to about 1965,
showing our area of the Delta, with notations about Ryer
Island or Snug Harbor added to some of the maps to help the
viewer understand the particular map. "CLICK" on the
maps or links to see these in full size.
The above shows a Delta slough that has almost been clogged
by silting over the years. Steamboat Slough was
dredged several times to keep it open for navigation, per
the federal and state agreements.
Hutchings view of Steamboat Slough at the
Sacramento River (Cache Slough area) in 1862
1862 sketch by Hutchings from the following
book:
Http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/scenes_of_wonder_and_curiosity/
Or got to the following PDF's we made of the sections that
talk about travel and fishing on Steamboat Slough,
Sacramento River and the San Joaquin
hutchings_california_magizine_summary.pdf
Hutchings_1871_sacramento_river_steamboat_slough_descriptions.pdf
Hutchings_1871_sacramento_river_descriptions.pdf
hutchings_california_magizine_summary.pdf
Salmon & Steamboat Slough
Shipwrecks of Steamboat Slough from 1848 to 1890
pdf of shipwrecks:
Shipwrecks
1852_hogsback_1906.pdf
New:
Shipwrecks of Sacramento River, including Steamboat, Sutter
and Cache Sloughs
How to catch salmon on Steamboat Slough in 1862
U.S. Navy description of Middle Fork in 1952
U.S. Navy map (portion of) from 1852
More Hogsback
go to
1852 full size map
Right side of this sketch shows a paddlewheel
steamer leaving the north end of Steamboat Slough to join
the boat traffic on the Sacramento river north of Walnut
Grove.
Hutchings Sketches of California #1
1895 Cyclist's map
http://ryerisland.com/images/maps/historic/1895_cyclers_map.jpg
1897 map
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http://ryerisland.com/images/maps/historic/ryer1897.gif
1901 Southern Pacific Railway map
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http://ryerisland.com/images/maps/historic/railway1901.jpg
1906 Official Survey Map of Delta area of California
1935 map showing small island before it became t
he peninsula we call Snug Harbor
1963survey.pdf
1935 Soils map of the Delta, including Ryer Island
http://ryerisland.com/images/maps/historic/1935soils.jpg
Article summarizing the timing for reclamation
of the major islands of the Delta
For many years, Steamboat Slough was the
"preferred route"
because it was the shorter more direct route between Rio
Vista and Sacramento as noted below:
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Artist's vision of the nighttime run of steamboats on Steamboat Slough
as this is the time many ships entered this section of the Sacramento
River route to Sacramento
References and research: Newspapers of the period: The Alta
California, The Sacramento Union, the Sacramento Bee.; "Paddle Wheel
Days in California" by Jerry MacMullen 1944; Delta King and Queen; "A
Map and Record Investigation of Historical Sites and Shipwrecks Along
the Sacramento River Between Sacramento City and Sherman Island" by the
land Location and Boundary Section of California State Lands Commission,
1988; "Steamboats That Have from Time to Time Been Running from San
Francisco to Sacramento", 1859, Hutchings; Chapter titled "Scenes along
the Way" from Hutchings Yosemite book from 1862.and several other
resources.
Steamboat Slough in 1848 was referred to as
the "Middle Fork" or branch of the Sacramento River. Other records
show Steamboat Slough was preferred over the "old river" Sacramento
River route because it was more than 8 miles shorter and several hours
less travel by steamship. Islands bordering the Middle Fork in
1848 were Sutter, Schoolhouse and Taylor. However, due to
hydraulic mining, by the late 1850's Steamboat Slough was less traveled
by the larger steamers, yet still the preferred route for flat bottomed
boats that would stop at the landings on Steamboat Slough to pick up
fresh produce and drop off building supplies like bricks.
By 1867, Taylor Island was renamed Grand Island, and Sutter and Priest
Islands were combined into Ryer Island. Schoolcraft Island was
renamed to Sutter Island. Due to the waterway and island name
changes, careful attention must be paid to the exact years of the
shipwrecks and the island names associated with the shipwreck at that
time. Note: A natural island located about 4.5 miles north
of the convergence of Cache and Steamboat as noted by Mr Ringgold
starting in 1850, called "Hogsback Shoal",
was sold by
the state to G.W. Blake, a Sacramento area builder in 1878. By
1935, Ryer Island levees had been improved, the zig zag sections of
Steamboat Slough had been mellowed out, and land that may have been a
portion of Hog's Back Shoal became part of the peninsula called
"Martin's Island" and later "Snug Harbor" by the 1960's.
*new*
Paddle Wheelers #1
Paddle Wheelers #2)
The larger
ships usually traveled through Steamboat Slough at night. Author
A.J. Hutchings wrote in 1862 of a daytime trip through Steamboat Slough,
and he noted the signs of farming and "husbandry" along both sides of
the slough, and the "Snug Little Cabins" tucked away behind the trees
along the banks. Logs kept by the State of California show there
were at least 15 landings or ferry stops along Steamboat Slough between
1850 and 1880.
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Ship name
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Date & details
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References
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Wasp
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January 12, 1965. A sloop.
Sank in Steamboat Slough carrying cobbles and brick.
Sailing down Steamboat Slough from Freeport.
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CSLC, page 19
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Bianca
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October 1854. A schooner.
Cache Creek near Steamboat. 80-100 tons of assorted cargo
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CSLC, page 19
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Fanny Ann
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November 9, 1868. propeller
boat. Grain.
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F.W. Crawford
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July 30, 1868. A sloop.
Traveling from Sacramento to San Francisco via Steamboat Slough.
Brick and other cargo
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Sacramento Union and CSLC, page
63
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Nevada
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February 7,1862.Paddle
wheeler/steamer. Racing with New World headed towards
Sacramento from Rio Vista. Sunk at mouth of Steamboat
Slough at Cache
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Paddle-Wheel Days of California
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Pet
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March 10, 1870. Steamer
headed to Sacramento from Rio Vista. Sunk in Steamboat
Slough
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CSLC, page 89
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Eclipse
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March 1, 1873. Barge
wrecked near the bank of Steamboat Slough. Towed to a
point near Hogs Back. Reference to use as a wingdam later
at mouth of Cache Creek.
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CSLC, 111
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Goliath
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July 22, 1879. Schooner.
Near Cache Slough confluence or higher on Benicia to Courtland
run.
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MacMullen
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Washoe
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September 5, 1864. Blew up
engine while racing with Chrysiopolis after leaving Rio Vista,
going up into Steamboat Slough. Reports say 50 people were
killed. "The explosion of the boilers of the Washoe took
place at ten o'clock, at a point just above the Hog's Back,
about ten miles above Rio Vista, on her up-trip on Monday
night".
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The San Francisco Daily Morning
Call, Sept 7, 1864
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New World
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1851. Steamer; ruptured a
steam-line while going through Steamboat Slough
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MacMullen, page 25
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"unknown"
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1850. The gold heist.
Local papers indicate a steamer with gold bars in her hold was
on Steamboat Slough late July and got stuck on a sandbar at the
top end of Hog's back Shoal. The crew and few passengers
all jumped off before the ship blew up and burned, so no one was
killed. When the ship owner returned a day later to
collect the contents of the hold it was all gone, assumed to
have blown up and burned. (Most who hear this story assume
the gold was stollen upriver and then the ship beached and
burned to cover their tracks1)
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Local records
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pdf of shipwrecks:
Shipwrecks
1852_hogsback_1906.pdf
New:
Shipwrecks of Sacramento River, including Steamboat, Sutter and Cache
Sloughs
How to catch salmon on Steamboat Slough in 1862
U.S. Navy description of Middle Fork in 1952
U.S.
Navy map (portion of) from 1852
More
Hogsback
go to 1852 full size
map
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Steamboat
Slough in the Sacramento Delta Region
