This page is under construction: Over the coming year, I will be adding trip reports, photos, journals, interviews and more from trips on the Missouri river from 1961 back to the 1800's. Feel free to glance around to see what's been added.
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Paul Boyton - The Fearless Frogman- The world's greatest adventurer, who ever paddled a river.
Yellowstone & Missouri Rivers:
One of the greatest adventurers to navigate the Missouri River was Paul Boyton, known as the "Fearless Frogman." A showman and adventurer, he is credited with spurring worldwide interest in water sports, especially open-water swimming. Boyton is best remembered for his water stunts that captivated audiences around the globe, including his remarkable crossing of the English Channel in a unique rubber suit that functioned like a kayak. As the founder of Sea Lion Park in 1895, he is also recognized as the originator of the first modern amusement park, a permanent, fenced-in enclosure that charged admission at the gate. Born in either Ireland or Pennsylvania, Boyton served in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. He then tried his hand as a soldier of fortune, diamond miner, and lifeguard in Atlantic City before discovering his true calling: popularizing a body-tight rubber suit equipped with inflatable air pouches that allowed him to survive in icy waters for extended periods. To promote the suit he purportedly invented, Boyton embarked on a worldwide publicity tour. He floated down rivers and channels—usually on his back with his feet pointed downstream and a paddle to aid his progress. After demonstrating the suit in an ocean swim in Ireland, he returned to the United States and floated the Mississippi River from Alton, Illinois, to St. Louis, drawing crowds to the riverbanks to watch him pass. In addition to the Mississippi, Boyton floated numerous rivers, including the Danube, Rhine, Rhone, Seine, Po, Loire, Tiber, and Targus. In the United States, he also navigated the Missouri, Yellowstone, Ohio, and Hudson Rivers. His most extensive journey, chronicled in his autobiography "Rouging It In Rubber," covered over 3,580 miles (not accurate mileage) from Cedar Creek in Montana to St. Louis, taking him 64 days to complete. After his adventurous days as a "human cork," Boyton found new avenues for his entrepreneurial spirit, including building Paul Boyton's Water Chutes park in Chicago, opening a New York saloon called "The Ship" on Broadway, and helping to establish the Luna Park amusement park at Coney Island. He passed away at his Long Island home on April 18, 1924. Despite his self-promotion, Boyton’s numerous accomplishments secure his place among the world's greatest adventurers. His stunts might seem unbelievable if not for the documentation that accompanied his fame. Many of the rivers he floated in his rubber suit were wild and uncharted. In 1881, Boyton traveled the combined 3,580 miles of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers from Glendive, Montana, to St. Louis, Missouri. He received greetings at every fort he passed, with soldiers and Native Americans lining the riverbank to watch him. During this perilous journey, he faced various hazards, including hostile tribes that occasionally took potshots at him. The river's treacherous currents and undercut banks posed constant threats to his safety. Starting his trip in mid-September, the water temperatures dropped daily. Many of his river descents offered significant risks, yet Boyton always seemed to finish his journeys safely. This is remarkable, considering he navigated every major river in Europe and America despite their many dangers. At this point, a discussion of his floating suit is warranted, as you might be curious about how such a contraption works. The rubber suit, as it was called, was a prototype of the modern survival suit (often referred to as a "Gumby Suit") used on fishing boats in northern waters. Without an immersion suit, survival time in cold waters is less than 30 minutes. Boyton’s suit was invented by C.S. Merriman in 1872 and patented as an “improved life-preserving dress.” It was a precursor to the modern wetsuit, made of vulcanized rubber and consisting of a top and bottom piece sealed together at the waist with a metal band. The suit was designed to be waterproof, and flotation was provided by a series of air bladders that could be inflated orally through a tube. An air sack behind the head offered comfortable head support—an important feature, considering Boyton often floated for 36 hours straight without going ashore. Air bladders along the sides and legs kept the wearer in a stable and comfortable position, even in rough waters. The only parts of his body exposed to the elements were his eyes, nose, and mouth. Fortunately, his mouth was unobstructed, as Boyton carried a bugle that he used to alert those who might consider shooting at him. On many occasions, he noticed both settlers and Native Americans raising weapons, and the bugle helped scare them off or deter curious grizzly bears that approached too closely. |
Coney Island History and Sea Lion Park: The Paul Boyton Story:
Amazing story and photos!
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1913: The Rev. George MacDougal of Olivet Baptist church and G. W. Aulabaugh paddled from Sioux City to Omaha. MacDougall's two daughters, Nora, aged 13, and Margaret, 9, accompanied Aulabaugh and his wife. The cost of the trip was a
little over $10.
"We were prepared for a hard trip, and we got one. Several times, we narrowly escaped being tumbled out. We shot the worst kind of rapids in the river and didn't know where they were taking us; the sandstorm almost swamped us." Camp on Saturday was made just below Decatur, Nebraska, near ruins of a Jesuit mission built in 1839 by Father Hamilton. The mission is located on a very high hill and when first built could be seen for ten miles up or down the river. The article is very detailed of this trip that took place over 100 years ago and before the river was channelized. The talk of rapids and various channels provided a harrowing trip.
Historic timeline: The same month of their trip the Worlds largest commercial office building opened in St. Louis. President Woodrow Wilson sets off the explosion of the Gambian Dyke ending the construction of the Panama Canal. That same year, R.J. Reynolds introduces the first pack of cigarettes.
Click the button below to read the full article.
little over $10.
"We were prepared for a hard trip, and we got one. Several times, we narrowly escaped being tumbled out. We shot the worst kind of rapids in the river and didn't know where they were taking us; the sandstorm almost swamped us." Camp on Saturday was made just below Decatur, Nebraska, near ruins of a Jesuit mission built in 1839 by Father Hamilton. The mission is located on a very high hill and when first built could be seen for ten miles up or down the river. The article is very detailed of this trip that took place over 100 years ago and before the river was channelized. The talk of rapids and various channels provided a harrowing trip.
Historic timeline: The same month of their trip the Worlds largest commercial office building opened in St. Louis. President Woodrow Wilson sets off the explosion of the Gambian Dyke ending the construction of the Panama Canal. That same year, R.J. Reynolds introduces the first pack of cigarettes.
Click the button below to read the full article.
1927:
Jim Baldwin and Dave Broadwell, members of the Omaha Walking Club, completed a high-water trip from Yankton, SD, to Omaha in their canoe named Nismaha. The duo fought winds, waves, and fought a three-hour "maelstrom" near Blair, Nebraska. According to the newspaper, they were as brown as Indians. When they arrived, the river, according to the boys, was at flood stage the entire way. 'There were places where the river spread out 3 1/2 miles wide.
"Up above Sioux City, it was eating its banks for miles, and whole farms were toppling into the river." They had to haul the boat to shore in Sioux City until the wind abated and bail out the canoe. "The sandstone cliffs are covered with hieroglyphics, the carvings of boatmen and others who have passed up and down for generations. One man carved his in an exposed rock in 1870 and it was still as sharp as the day he did it"
Broadwell said the main channel of the stream was submerged all the way down, and the water was, on average, 10 feet higher than normal. "Ten miles north, we ran into a maelstrom. We tried to shoot across it and found that it was a whirlpool and one and a half miles in circumference. It would take our little boat and shoot it hither and yon, like a feather in eddying winds. First it would shoot us over to the Nebraska side, then suddenly we'd veer to the Iowa side, whirling on the water".
"We made the trip from Sioux City to Florence, 135 miles, Friday. We found that the river hit the bluffs on the Nebraska shore 12 times and the Iowa side only 4 times."
The year 1927 was during the Great Depression, and nearly 100 years ago. Just a month before their journey, aviator Charles Lindbergh made the 1st solo nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. The final Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line in Michigan, ending a 19-year run with that model. It would be a month later in the summer when a tornado rips through the St. Louis, Missouri area, killing 79 people and injuring 550.
Read the entire article by clicking the button below.