On May 1867 The Steam Boat Julia sank in the Minnesota River , Now What?

[GoldenEagle]

Currently I need any help looking for the Hull of the Julia . This steam boat that hit a snag and went down in 1867. I have some Ideas, but I cant decide if its worth all the time and energy to search for it. The odds are in good favor that this is one of 6 possible steamboats on the River bottom. The silt runoff from the farms and flooding has buried it. I was thinking the AT pro could find this and I could place it with the historical society. Any Ideas if its in the inner part of or outer part of the river about 2 miles down from Mankato.
Here is a link .
Annual Statement of the Trade and Commerce of St. Louis - Google Books once at link you can click on the page and it will show all the steamboat disasters of the page.

This Steamer was labeled a total loss but no records about it being pulled out of the River bottom are found.
HH

 

[kuger]

I think you need to read Treasure in a Corn field,the story about Greg Hawley's tribulations of finding and excavating the Steamboat Arabia,then you be the judge

doubtful any detector will do you any good either.....

 

[GoldenEagle]

Ok, I'll read it, first. Its really intriguing knowing it could be down there. Does he find it a corn field?

 

[kuger]

...ya gotta read it.....fantastic read!!!Then go to their museum

 

[uglymailman]

Quite a story.
Steamboat Arabia Museum

 

[TheNewCatfish]

A few months after WWII some members of a U-boat crew were picked up in the city of New Orleans. After a PBY aircraft depth charged and damaged the sub in the Gulf of Mexico, they scuttled (sank) the boat in the Pearl River and walked along the RR tracks into town. People have been looking for that sub for 70 years. It is rumored to have been carrying Nazi gold to South America. Problem is, dozens of sunk barges used in the timber industry also lie on the bottom of the Pearl River.

 

[Guns Blazing]

I live a few blocks from the minnesota river!

 

[Caseman91291]

Currently I need any help looking for the Hull of the Julia . This steam boat that hit a snag and went down in 1867. I have some Ideas, but I cant decide if its worth all the time and energy to search for it. The odds are in good favor that this is one of 6 possible steamboats on the River bottom. The silt runoff from the farms and flooding has buried it. I was thinking the AT pro could find this and I could place it with the historical society. Any Ideas if its in the inner part of or outer part of the river about 2 miles down from Mankato.
Here is a link .
Annual Statement of the Trade and Commerce of St. Louis - Google Books once at link you can click on the page and it will show all the steamboat disasters of the page.

This Steamer was labeled a total loss but no records about it being pulled out of the River bottom are found.
HH

I think I read somewhere that a bell was recovered and is either at the library or Blue Earth County Historical Society or the courthouse. I could be completely wrong but I am not sure. It sounds really familiar. It seems to me that I read that a bell was recovered from a sunken steamboat on the Minnesota River near Mankato. I am sure you have checked this out but there was an article that mentioned it was two miles northeast of Mankato. I also have a book that covers the history of steam boats on the Minnesota River if you are interested.

Couple to scour Minnesota River for steamboat wrecks » Local News » The Free Press, Mankato, MN

 

[Caseman91291]

It is also listed in the History of Blue Earth County. It says that the hull is still there but the rest of the ship was dismantled and that most all of the cargo was salvaged. Still defiantly worth looking into.

 

[Bum Luck]

I think that river floods massively, if I recall correctly.

 

[Caseman91291]

Yes, the Minnesota River is prone to flooding in the Spring. That probably doesn't help the search very much but is still pretty interesting.

 

[Bum Luck]

My recollection is that by Shakopee it's gone up what seems like 40 feet or more. That's a LOT of water, and fast.

 

[GoldenEagle]

I read the "Treasure in a Corn field" interesting read. They made it sound so easy until the costs piled up. If we had a team that could get out there and search on a weekend. plus, After we find it, the question is, Now what do we do?

 

[WIDirtFishing]

I read the "Treasure in a Corn field" interesting read. They made it sound so easy until the costs piled up. If we had a team that could get out there and search on a weekend. plus, After we find it, the question is, Now what do we do?

The authorities would probably make you turn it over to an archeological society or University. Since it probably is protected by the MN laws that govern shipwrecks. Seems kind of weird, but they are on the books. Mainly for Lake Superior and Mississippi River wrecks, but apply to all inland lakes and rivers.

 

[durham64]

Thanks uglymailman, I just took a look at the website and video about the Arabia that you posted. What an interesting story and the effort Hawley's put into it's recovery are remarkable. I would love to visit the museum if I am ever in that area. A truly amazing story!

 

[GoldenEagle]

I checked the MN river sediment patterns Julia could be buried 6 to 8 feet deep. Not worth only part of the steamer. The whole would be a different story.

 

[WIDirtFishing]

I checked the MN river sediment patterns Julia could be buried 6 to 8 feet deep. Not worth only part of the steamer. The whole would be a different story.

Where did you find sediment reports? I would be interested in a report on the Cannon River if you have it or can shoot me a link?

 

[sroed54]

The Julia did sink in 1867. Much of the farming machinery and personal effects on the boat were recovered that year, and – as was mentioned in other replies, so was the bell. The personal effects and the bell are, in fact, housed at the Blue Earth County historical museum. In the early 1950s a fisherman was fishing at the north end of the area that is now Riverfront park and hooked the keel of the Julia and hauled it onto shore. There may be some additional personal effects in the river, but most of what it had on board was salvaged right away.

 

[barkwadder]

Riverfront Park is less than a mile from downtown Mankato. If the Julia actually went down TWO miles out, that could put her in the dead MN river channel loop known as Hiniker Oxbow, which touches the western valley bluff along Lake St. in North Mankato near where I grew up. When my late father sank a shallow garden well there in grampa's cow pasture near the oxbow, he was hopeful the wood pieces he brought up were from the Julia, which neighborhood legend said wrecked nearby. A City of Mankato document I read tonight said the wreck location was at Jefferson Bend. Anyone ever heard of that?

Am also interested an any evidence as to when and how the river changed course, isolating the oxbow, sometime since the turn of the twentieth century. Dad, born 1908, says he caught river walleye as a boy in what is now the dead channel. The old aerial maps we've viewed show the river as a notorious meanderer, often running at the same time on BOTH sides of what is now the curious Hiniker Pond protrusion of Blue Earth County of Nicolet County.

What is your source for the 1950 fisherman info on the Julia? Know his name?















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