Letter: Remembering The Sergeant Floyd

Reading the latest Old Boat Column about the Sergeant Floyd brought back memories from when I made a short trip from Nauvoo, Ill., to Keokuk, Iowa, on September 11, 1975. Some students from Keokuk Junior High had been selected to ride the Sergeant Floyd. It was the 200th birthday of the Army Corps of Engineers, which was founded on June 16, 1775, and the Floyd was touring the Upper Mississippi to give tours and celebrate the Corps’ 200th birthday.

What I really wanted to add, more than anything, is this. A special guest had been aboard the Sergeant Floyd over on the Missouri River in 1960 — former President Harry S. Truman, who as many know, grew up in Missouri in southern Jackson County, 17 miles southwest of Independence, Mo. Truman was always a strong advocate for improving the Missouri River to a 9-foot channel to haul grain as well as steel and other products on the river.

The Missouri Basin was composed of governments and leaders of cities along the Missouri River Valley and had Gen. Harry G. Woodbury of the Army Corps of Engineers also pushing forward to improve the Missouri River. The Missouri River Basin was later known as the Pick-Sloan Plan, named for Col. Lewis A. Pick of the Army Corps of Engineers and William Glenn Sloan of the Bureau of Reclamation. The Pick-Sloan Plan included creation of dams and reservoirs to control flooding, along with other needed work, all along the Missouri River.

In 1960, a movie came out (in 16 mm format) that explained in great detail the importance of commerce on the Missouri River. The film included interviews, one of which was with Truman. In the interview, he is at Wayne City Landing at Kansas City, along with Gen. Woodbury. Truman is talking about the importance and need for the 9-foot channel, its significance as far up the Missouri River as it can go and the savings it would bring to shippers. It also showed his wit when Truman said, “I’d like to see a 9-foot channel on the Missouri River as far as it will go,” and added that, if the channel was 34 feet, he’d “bring the USS Missouri up here.”

One last thing I wanted to add was that a second Missouri River inspection boat was built for the Omaha District. The Sergeant Pryor was built in 1935 by Dubuque Boat & Boiler.

Featured image caption: The Sergeant Floyd northbound at Lock 19 in 1975. (Photo by John Miller)