Grant Marsh
American riverboat captain (1834–1916)
Grant Prince Marsh (May 11, 1834 – January 1916) was a riverboat pilot and captain who was noted for his many piloting exploits on the upper Missouri River and the Yellowstone River in the Western United States from 1862 until 1882. He began working as a cabin boy in 1856, eventually becoming a captain, pilot, and owner in a career lasting over sixty years. During that time, he achieved an outstanding record and reputation as a steamboat captain, serving on more than 22 vessels. His piloting exploits became legendary and modern historians have referred to him as "possibly the greatest steamboat man ever", "possibly the greatest [steamboat pilot] ever", "possibly the finest riverboat pilot who ever lived", and "the greatest steamboat master and pilot on both the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers".
After the discovery of gold in Montana Territory in the early 1860s, the Missouri River became the major artery for freight and passengers traveling from "the states" to Fort Benton, near the head of navigation on the upper river. The last 300 miles ran through a vast unsettled prairie and the remote Missouri breaks. As a riverboat pilot in this wilderness Marsh contended with migrating buffalo herds, hostile Indians, and severe weather including violent windstorms, along with numerous underwater hazards from rapids, snags, and sandbars.
From 1873 to 1879 Marsh piloted shallow-draft paddle wheel steamboats on pioneer voyages up the Yellowstone River in support of several military expeditions into Indian country. In 1875, he made the furthest upriver ascent of the Yellowstone in the Josephine, arriving at a point just above present-day Billings, Montana. Marsh is most often referenced by historians for his exploits in 1876 as the pilot of the Far West, a shallow-draft steamboat operating on the Yellowstone River and its tributaries, which accompanied a U.S. Army column that included Lt.
“Grant Marsh” enters the record as american riverboat captain (1834–1916). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Grant, Marsh and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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