23 Facts About Grant Marsh

Grant Prince Marsh was a riverboat pilot and captain who was noted for his many piloting exploits on the upper Missouri River and the Yellowstone River in Montana from 1862 until 1882.

Grant Marsh started to work as a cabin boy in 1856, eventually becoming a captain, riverboat pilot and riverboat owner, in a career lasting over sixty years.

From 1873 to 1879 Grant Marsh piloted shallow draft paddle wheel riverboats making pioneer voyages up the Yellowstone River in Montana, in support of several military expeditions into Indian country.

Grant Marsh is most often referenced by historians for his exploit in 1876 as the pilot of the Far West, a shallow draft steamboat operating on the Yellowstone River and its tributaries, which was accompanying a U S Army column that included Lt.

Grant Marsh brought the first news of the "Custer Massacre" which was disseminated to the nation via telegraph from Bismarck.

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Grant Marsh remained a steamboatman until his death in 1916 at the age of 82.

Grant Marsh began work on the Allegheny River as a cabin boy at the age of 12.

Grant Marsh became a first mate and student pilot under Samuel Clemens on the Mississippi in 1858.

Grant Marsh was a major figure in upper Missouri River steamboat navigation from the days of the early Montana gold discoveries in 1862 until 1888.

Grant Marsh was so confident in his piloting skills that he would operate on the upper Missouri late in the season, running the rapids in low water.

In 1868, Grant Marsh took the Nile up river during the fall and wintered the boat and successfully returned downriver in the spring, undamaged.

Grant Marsh was delayed by buffalo herds crossing the river ahead of him.

Grant Marsh learned to "grasshopper" his way over sandbars in low water.

In 1871, Captain Marsh went into business with Commodore Sanford B Coulson, his two brothers, and other noteworthy businessmen, and formed the Coulson Packet Company, which soon became famous in the Missouri River's history.

Grant Marsh traveled to Pittsburgh and brought the boat to the Dakota Territory.

In 1879, Marsh purchased a ferry boat, the Andrew S Bennett, which was in service between Bismarck and Mandan on the Missouri River.

In 1882 Marsh purchased his own riverboat, the W J Behan and continued to haul freight and passengers on the Missouri River out of Bismarck.

Grant Marsh surrendered to the Army at Fort Randal with his remaining followers.

In late April 1883, Marsh accepted an assignment to take the W J Behan up the Missouri to Fort Randal and transport Sitting Bull downstream to the Standing Rock Reservation.

In 1883 as Missouri steamboat traffic declined with the expansion of railroad lines through the Dakota Territory and into the Montana Territory, Marsh sold the W J Behan and moved from Bismarck to Memphis, Tennessee and then to St Louis.

Grant Marsh operated a "snag" boat which traveled up and down the river, removing sunken "snag" trees and other underwater obstacles.

Grant Marsh was reported to have "died in near poverty", as Issac P Baker, his manager at the Benton Packet Co.

Grant Marsh asked to be buried on Wagon Wheel Bluff overlooking the Missouri, but he was buried in a simple grave in Bismarck's St Mary's Cemetery.