Saluda Memorial, Lexington, Missouri, USA

On April 9, 1852, one of the most tragic steamboat accidents to occur on Missouri River took place near Lexington, Missouri. The steamboat Saluda was traveling up the river from St. Louis, to Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Nebraska and carried between 100 and 115 people Latter-day Saints.¹

Several immigrating Saints who had sailed across the Atlantic aboard the ship Kennebec to New Orleans and then made their way to St. Louis where Eli B. Kelsey and David J. Ross chartered the Saluda to take those who were continuing on to Council Bluffs.² Pieces of ice were still drifting down the river and few steamboats were operating at this time due to the hazardous conditions.

Upon reaching Lexington on April 4, difficulties occurred with attempting to push around the Lexington Bend. The Saluda did not have enough power to make it around the bend and spent the next few days attempting to get up the river and having some repairs done on the ship. The Saluda was an older steamboat which had originally sunk in 1847 and was refitted after being underwater for several months.³

On the morning of April 9, 1852, Captain Belt, part-owner and captain of the Saluda, decided to attempt again to round the bend. He is reported to have said that he would “round the point this morning or blow this boat to hell!”⁴ The boilers were filled to the maximum pressure and subsequently exploded shortly after leaving the dock. Approximately 75 of the 175 passengers lost their lives in the explosion with many others seriously wounded. Of these, 26 are believed to have been members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The citizens of Lexington responded with Christian charity, taking many of the survivors into their homes and caring for them. The city also created four committees to care for the sick, bury the dead, raise money to help the victims, and find a home for those children whose parents were killed in the blast. Abraham O. Smoot spoke of their charity when he wrote that “I shall never forget the kindness of the citizens of Lexington in caring for the living and burying the dead. The Lord certainly inspired them to do all that sympathy and benevolence could suggest in aid of the afflicted.”⁵

On April 9, 2002, residents of Lexington and descendants of survivors of the explosion gathered together to mark the sesquicentennial anniversary since the Saluda tragedy. A memorial park was created which includes a plaque, a bell similar to the original Saluda bell. Also, in 2004, a documentary about the tragic event was created by KBYU and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation.

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SOURCES

¹ “‘Don’t Go Aboard the Saluda!’: William Dunbar, LDS Emigrants, and Disaster on the Missouri,” William G. Hartley, Mormon Historical Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 46.

² Contributor, July 1892, Vol. 13, No. 9, 408.

³ Hartley, 44.

⁴ Ibid, 52.

⁵ Contributor, 414.

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