La Belle' River: The Beautiful Watery Grave of the White River

I crawled into a partially burned-out, hollow tree that was still alive
on a steep bank of the White River to get this video clip.

This island in the White River, Red Bud Shoal, cuts the channel in half.
It is located 401.8 miles upstream from the Mouth of the White River.
The hindermost break in the channel, the right-hand chute, was once the
location of a stone wing dam 268 feet long, built in fiscal year 1882
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1882.
In order to increase the channel depth for steamboats, a stone wing dam,
140 feet long, was built from left bank in fiscal year 1884.
1888 condition: Dam on right bank down to low water;
only traces left of wing dam were visible on left bank.

The White River winding its way through the Ozarks and the Arkansas Delta can sometimes evoke illusions of peace and tranquility. In decades past, she has been referenced by her French namesake the La Belle' River: the Beautiful River. Yet beneath its placid ripples & shoals, mighty torrents can sweep through its channel, inundating steamboats, pilots & passengers. Below is an 1854 article from the New Orleans Daily Crescent giving a sweeping view of the White River.

The White River.--A correspondent of the Memphis Whig gives the following description of White river, Arkansas. It is a far more important river than we had ever supposed it to be. Frequently, of late, we had observed in the Memphis papers, such notices as assured us that the commerce on the White river was very considerable, but it surprised us to learn that the river itself is so great. It has just been the scene of a dreadful steamboat accident;

The beautiful "La Belle' river" of the southwest, affords about seven hundred miles of navigable water, during most of the hauling season, and about three hundred miles as good for small boats, the whole year, as the Mississippi below Memphis. Few rivers in the Union afford finer lands and greater variety of production; and no country is inviting a more enterprising, intelligent, and wealthy planting population, than White river. This trade, in a very few years, will build up and sustain a city of itself.

It disembogues its waters near the mouth of Arkansas river in the Mississippi - is navigable at times some distance in the State of Missouri - it thus drains an immense region of the best cotton land in the Southwest. Taking its rise in the Ozark Mountains, passing through the finest grain-growing region in South Missouri, and North Arkansas, that is to be found in our country, much of which is rich in minerals. [1]

Steamboat Landings and Distances on the White River and Tributaries from

Lloyds Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters, 1856.

The preceding article mentions the “scene of a dreadful steamboat accident.” Most likely, the correspondent was referencing the steamboat Caroline sinking about 20 miles upstream from the mouth of the river, in the vicinity of the White River called the Carolina Reach. 

Plate 41. Map of the White River from Forsyth, Missouri, to the Mouth. Published July, 1, 1888. 

Under the direction of Capt. Henry S. Taber, Assistant Engineers James C. Long & Charles E. Taft.  

Reduction by A.E. Beadle July 1, 1888.  

Scanned by Vincent S. Anderson with permission from 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District Archives on September 18, 2014.

The Caroline was a sternwheel packet, wood hull, manufactured in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1853, weighed 103 tons, and measured 134’ x 24’ x 3.5’. The steamboat burned and succumbed to a watery grave on March 5, 1854, and the tragedy claimed 45 lives. [2] The Caroline was once known as the "Belle of the White River." [3] James T. Lloyd writes in his 1856 book, Lloyds Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters, concerning the events of that dreadful day:

Burning of the Caroline.

The Caroline was a Memphis packet, employed on the White river. She had ascended that river about twenty miles on Sunday, March 5, 1854, when, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the wood pile near the boilers, was discovered to be on fire. The pilot at the wheel, Mr. John R. Price, steered for the shore, which was overflown by high water. Before the shore was reached, some persons attempted to escape in the yawl, which, being overcrowded, speedily sunk, and all who had embarked in it were drowned. The flames, in the meanwhile, rapidly overspread the steamer, which was soon consumed, down to the level of the water. There were many deck passengers on board, nearly all of whom were lost. The principal sufferers were women and children, who were not able to make the exertions required for their preservation. 

The names of those of the crew and passengers who are known to have perished, will be found below:

List of Killed.—John R. Price and James Creighton, pilots; Lewis Pollock, assistant bar-keeper; eight deck hands and firemen, whose names the captain, in his report of the disaster, omitted to mention ; wife and child of J. Haskins, Marshall county, Tenn. ; four children of S. McMullen, of Madison county, Tenn. ; Mrs. Haley and three children, Tippah county. Miss.; John Horton, wife, and two children, Mr. Karrell, Mr. Martin, Miss Susanna E. Pool, a son of Mr. Henshaw, Mr. Shelby, of Madison county, Tenn.; a son-in-law, a widowed sister, with her thirteen children, and another sister of Mr. Wortham; Mr. Harshaw, of Clarendon, Ark. ; George Jones, clerk of the house of Poole & Co., Jacksonport, Tenn., and a number of deck passengers, names unknown.

It is a remarkable circumstance that scarcely any of the crew or passengers who escaped with life, were injured in the slightest degree. There was considerable amount of money on board. The safe, containing $5,000, sunk in the river, and never was recovered. Mr. Penn, one of the passengers, lost $3,500. The remains of Mr. Wilbank, who died a few days before at the Commercial Hotel, Memphis, were on board on their way to his former place of residence, where the funeral was to take place. The body, however, was doomed to find a grave beneath the waters of White river. A package of money which had belonged to the deceased, and which in his dying moments, he had directed to be sent to his widow, was lost with the other money in the safe.

The hull of the Caroline, having burned to the water's edge, broke in two, and sunk out of sight. The whole loss of boat, cargo, money, and other property belonging to the passengers, is estimated at $150,000. There was an (sic) insurance on the boat for $5,000. She was finished in the preceding summer, and cost $12,000.[4]

In a Kentucky newspaper, The Lebanon Post, the editor relayed the tragic events to their readers:

Burning of the Steamer Caroline!!

By the arrival of the steamer Memphis Monday morning we learn that a steamer Caroline, a Memphis and White river packet, was destroyed on Sunday morning last the 5th inst., between 3 and 4 o'clock about 20 miles above the mouth of White river, whilst on her way from Memphis to Jacksonport. The Memphis Evening News, of the 6^th inst., from which we glean the particulars of this terrible disaster, has the following:

We cannot find language to express the feelings awakened in our bosom on listening to the recital of the horrible disaster by Captain Folger who came passenger on the St. Nicholas. Among those who perished we notice the names of Mr. Price one of the pilots; Captain James Creighton of this city; and Lewis Pollock, a young lad. Mr. Price had but lately been married to the young and interesting daughter of Recorder Hill. She who so lately was a joyous and happy bride, now is a bereaved widow mourns the sad fate of her brave husband. Poor Price! When last seen, he was at his post endeavoring to run the boat ashore in which he succeeded and lost own life in the heroic attempt to save the lives others.

At the time of the accident the captain had about $5,000 in the safe belonging to others, which was entirely lost. When she had burned at the water’s edge, she straightened herself up and down river and sunk in about 30 feet water. There were a large number of passengers on board of which few could be saved. Out of ten deck hands but two escaped. [5]

Bibliography: 
1. “Burning of the Caroline,” New Orleans Daily Crescent, New Orleans, LA, March 22, 1854. Library of Congress - Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. 

2. Way, Frederick, Jr. “0854 – Caroline,” Ways Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America. Athens, OH: Ohio Univ. Press, (1995), 72. 

3.Huddleston, Duane, Sammie Rose, and Pat Wood. Steamboats and ferries on the White River: a Heritage Revisited. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, (1998), 39. 
4. Lloyd, James T. Lloyds Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters; Containing the History of the First Application of Steam as a Motive Power, the Lives of J. Fitch and R. Fulton, Likenesses, and Engravings of their First Steamboats, Early Scenes on the Western Waters from 1798 to 1812, History of the Early Steamboat Navigation on Western Waters, etc. One Hundred Fine Engravings, and Forty-six Maps. Cincinnati, Philadelphia, (1856), 239-240.
5. “Burning of Steamboat Caroline!!,” Lebanon Post, March 15, 1854, page 2. Kentucky Digital Library, http://kdl.kyvl.org.