County of mural: Saline County
Location of mural: E. State St. (US 65), Malta Bend
Artist: Joey Hostetter & Judy Travis
Date of mural: 2011
Text:
YEP MURAL
2011
Malta Bend was named after the Malta
which sank in 1841 in a bend in the river.
The City: "Malta Bend is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 250 at the 2010 census.
Malta Bend was laid out in 1865. It was named for the steamer Malta, which was sunk in a bend of the Missouri River about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the city" ~ Wikipedia
"The lower reaches of the Missouri River already had a long history of European presence when Lewis and Clark came through. One of their most helpful informants in St. Louis had been James Mackay, a veteran in the Missouri river fur trade and, since 1795, a manager for the Spanish-controlled Missouri Fur Company. Mackay also gave Lewis copies of maps for the lower and middle Missouri made by one of his employees, a Welshman named John Evans.
"On 16 June 1804 Clark took a long walk through this "butifull extensive Prarie" to look for an old fort on Evans's map, built by the French thereabouts more than eighty years earlier. "I could See no traces of a Settlement of any kind," Clark concluded. Nevertheless, the party spent three days here making new oars and ropes, and hunting.
"Two years and three months later, on 16 September 1806, only seven days from St. Louis and the end of their journey, they paddled through this same scene in less than one day — a day "excessively worm and disagreeable, so much So that the men rowed but little," Clark wrote. Moreover, the navigator — presumably Pvt. Pierre Cruzatte — considered this stretch to be the worst on the river. That morning they encountered "a large tradeing Perogue" commanded by Joseph Robidoux, who three years before had established a trading post at the future location of St. Joseph, Missouri, forty-five miles upriver. The next day they met John McClellan, an old Army buddy of Lewis's, heading a large trading party bound for Santa Fe to "exchange his merchindize for Silver & gold of which those people abound." McClellan told them "the people in general in the United States were concerned about us as they had heard that we were all killed then again they heard that the Spanyards had us in the mines &C."
"In 1881 the steamboat Malta struck a snag in the river bend shown in the photo, and sank, leaving its name on the little farming community nearby — Malta Bend, Missouri, originally settled in 1867. Today the Missouri shows little trace of the treachery its snags, shifting sands and unpredictable currents imposed on the expedition's little fleet and the steamboats that came after, and well-groomed farmlands flourish where Clark saw seas of rich tall grass. However, its banks still cave in, and mosquitos and ticks remain relatively "noumerous & bad." ~ Discovering Lewis & Clark
"MALTA— Side-wheel; Captain Joseph Throckmorton, at Fort Snelling July 22, 1839; advertised at Galena in summer of 1840 for pleasure trip to St. Peters; went into Missouri River trade, where she was snagged in Malta Bend, August, 1841, and sank in 15 feet of water, in little more than a minute after striking a snag; boat and cargo total loss; no lives lost; Captain Throckmorton was in command at the time and owned nearly all or quite all of the boat." ~ Northern Illinois University
"The first steamboat I remember seeing was the Malta, a small side-wheeler. I was three years old and my comment was that it was "a wagon in the river." The first boat I was ever on was the Argus, when I was four years old. She was landed at Calico Rock, and my father took the whole family across the river from the farm hard by to see the boat. I had heard that steamboats sold pineapples. I was familiar with pine trees, but had never seen the fruit that grew on them. I soon escaped the vigilance of my parents and was found 15 minutes later in the engine room, inquiring for pineapples.
"Lingering in my memory is the refreshing wholesome odor of the early steamboats. I like the smell of a steamboat; it is a smelly place. The dining room with its rich furnishings and decorations and its superb service contributed its full share of delightful, hunger-exciting odors. In front of the dining room was the office on one side of the hall and the bar on the other side. Stocks of good-smelling candy, apples, oranges, lemons, pineapples, raisins, and figs were kept for sale in the office, while over on the opposite side of the hall, the preparation of eggnog, mint juleps, rock and rye, cocktails, sour toddies and other mixed and fancy drinks involving the use of sugar, rock candy, lemons, whiskey, water (not very much), nutmegs and other spices produced a sugary, spicy odor that kept the olfactory nerves worked up to a very pleasant and agreeable state." ~ The John Quincy Lyon Collection, Lyon College