In July 1882, the steamboat Red Cloud hit a snag near Fort Peck, 
Montana, and settled into the bed of the Missouri River with a 
full cargo. The flagship of I. G. Baker & Company, it had served 
as an agent of change in the West through which it traveled.

    The Red Cloud was a symbol—and a source—of the trading 
company's success. This stern-wheeled, wooden-hulled packet 
boat carried both cargo and passengers on a "floating palace." 
When it sank five years later, though, the transcontinental 
railroad was already displacing the steamboat as the preferred 
way to transport both people and cargo.

    The first book to view the development of the Canadian Rockies 
from a maritime perspective, The Life and Times of the 
Steamboat Red Cloud ties the Missouri River's commercial 
development with the opening of the Canadian West and with the 
formation of the Canadian North-West Mounted Police.

    Readers interested in western history, maritime history, and 
nautical archaeology will find this book an invaluable addition to 
their libraries.

_________________________________________________________

ANNALIES CORBIN is an assistant professor at East Carolina 
University and book review editor of the journal Historical 
Archaeology. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho, 
Moscow.


Ed Rachal Foundation Nautical Archaeology Series


What people are saying about this book

" . . . extends our understanding of the upper Missouri during the 
decisive period of settlement and trade in the steamboat era from 
1859 to the arrival of railroads in the mid-1880s. This important book 
views the development of the American and Canadian Rockies from 
a maritime perspective. . . . skillfully adds to our understanding of 
the role of a flagship steamboat and the strategies of an aggressive 
trading company in the development and settlement of the American 
and Canadian West. . . . the most important contribution to upper 
Missouri maritime history since William Lass's A History of 
Steamboat Navigation on the Upper Missouri forty years ago. It is 
an important addition to Missouri River history, maritime history, 
and nautical archaeology."—Great Plains Quarterly, Fall 2007

"Corbin’s work is a valuable addition to the understudied riverine 
history of the American-Canadian West and is accessible to a wide 
audience of academic and non-academic readers."—The Northern 
Mariner, 2006

"This volume is much more than the story of a river steamboat. 
The alternate title is much more descriptive of its contents. It is a 
detailed account of a river, the boats that worked on it and the 
economic and human aspects of both. It will be important to many 
groups, including nautical and historical archeologists, modelers, 
historians and avocational enthusiasts for riverboats and western 
history."—Nautical Research Journal, Fall 2006

"It is a detailed and compelling account of a river, the boats that 
worked it, and the economic and human aspects of both. . . . Corbin 
has masterfully ignored the national border in her text to write an 
integrative history, making this an internationally important work."
—James P. Delgado, Executive Director, Vancouver Maritime 
Museum

"Corbin is . . . a leading light in the field of nautical archaeology."
—J. Barto Arnold III, Director of Texas Operations, Institute of 
Nautical Archaeology