PsyWarOps's video: Wreck of the Montana

The Montana was a Mississippi and Missouri River stern-wheel steamboat, one of three "mega-steamboats" built in 1879 during the steamboat era on the Missouri River. It was a hundred yards long, 49 feet wide and weighed 1000 tons. In the summer of 2012, unusually low water levels in the Missouri exposed the remains of the Montana. About 180 feet of the ship's hull lies intact, locked in the grip of pure clay. The bow was sheared off and has not been found. The Montana represented the last days of a once-glorious steamboat industry that helped fuel the explosive growth of the American West. The boat was built with a lavish ballroom to please wealthy passengers, and enough cargo space to compete with railroads, which were well on the way to killing the steamboat industry. But the Missouri, a most ornery river, took her down. On June 22, 1884, Montana struck a snag (submerged tree) while paddling upriver loaded with passengers and cargo. The Montana's Captain/Pilot drove the boat into shallow water at rivers edge to prevent a total sinking and loss of life. All passengers were rescued and eventually the cargo was removed. The steam engines were also removed. The Montana was the subject of the History Channel's Deep Sea Detectives episode "Skeleton in the Sand: The Montana" in September 2003 and was featured in the Wild West Tech episode "Biggest Machines in the West" in December 2004.