Flatboating on the Embarrass, Jasper County, Illinois Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Copyright 2000 Cindy McCachern A. J. Haskett, of Robinson, Writes of Flatboating on the Embarrass   From the Walbash Pearl, 27 September 1912   Fifty-five years ago the Embarras River was used to some extent as a navigable stream.  The writer has been acquainted with the Embarras from above Newton to its mouth.  There are many miles that could be used by small steamboats and with a light appropriation from the government and from the state, and possibly from the counties through which it passes, it could be made a navigable waterway as far as Newton--perhaps for a greater distance.   There are but a few mills on the river driven by water power.  The lands on each side of the river are rich and productive, yielding all kinds of grain crops, as well as fine meadows and tame grasses of all kinds.  No better fruit and vegetable land can be found than along the Embarras River, and there are nearly all kinds of timber.  In the river bottoms, the value of the land has increased very much.  Many years ago, I personally knew a farmer to trade a forty acres tract of bottom land for a breaking plow.  He said he had use for the land, but he needed the plow.  I know the land well.  It would now bring $75 per acre any time.  He had better gone in debt for his plow and kept the land.   I have seen rivers in the west not so broad as the Embarras but with a deeper channel, that were used by small streamers.  By a proper system of embankments and dykes, the water could be confined to it banks and channel, and this would also reclaim thousands of acres of rich land that is now nearly useless.   There has never been anything done for the Embarras not even a survey made.  Vast volumes of water pass along its course on its way to the gulf doing no one any good, but it could be utilized for commercial purposes.   It is not generally known but corn has been raised in Jasper county and shipped by flat boats by the way of the Embarras river to the Southern markets.  In the spring of 1861, our firm built and equipped three flat boats on the banks of the Embarras, one of them not very far from the Jasper county line.  They were loaded with corn, some of it bought from Jasper county farmers at 18 cents per bushel.  For good white corn, we paid a little more.  In one of the boats we put about fifteen barrels of eggs.  At the time there were no egg cases.  In each barrel there were 250 dozen eggs, for which we paid five cents per dozen.  They were packed in ch. or cut straw.  Those three boats were all loaded and taken out of the Embarras to New Orleans, reaching the destination in good time and good condition.  We received a good percent for our corn as well as for the eggs.  We are not the only person who used the Embarras for transportation in sending out flat boats loaded with corn and other farm products.   Our firm for sometime before 18-- had sent boats to New Orleans loaded with corn and other farm articles but this mode of transporation by boats is not generally known at the time along the Embarras River, but such was the case.   The southwest part of Crawford county and the southeast part of Jasper county at that time was called "The Dark Bend" and it is so called yet to some extenet, but it is a fine country with good productive soil, have made fur buying trips to the Dark Bend sixty years ago.  The settlers, or at least most of them, we hunters and trappers.  On some of these trips I have bought as much as three or four hundred dollars worth of furs, and would hardly have paid that much money for five hundred acres of land, but I didn't think it would ever be of much value.   On one of my rambling trips in Dark Bend, on horseback, with the path or dim road not much used, I met a hunter.  He was dressed as an Indian.  I knew the man.  He had on his head a cap decorated with feathers of wild fowls, coat trimmed with the tails of coons and other furn animals, and a leather belt around his person.  On his shoulder he carried a gun and a shot pouch containing his ammunition swung at his side.  He had on buckskin pants, while in his belt was a large butcher knife, adn a hardaxe.  My horse took fright at the warlike looks of the hunter and felt somewhat relieved when I go past.  On my return I selected another route. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb Archivist with proof of this consent. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Cindy McCachern