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July 27, 1999
Preservation of Otter's boiler urgedGreat-granddaughterof Otter's captainsays artifact hashistorical significanceBy GUY PRIEL Journal Staff Writer NEW ULM -- An iron artifact at Riverside Park is more than a children's plaything. It is a part of the city's past that one Good Thunder resident wants to see preserved and protected. The iron artifact is the boiler from the "Otter," the last steamboat to ply the Minnesota River near New Ulm. Although smaller than most steamboats that once traveled the waters of the Minnesota and the Mississippi, the "Otter" has historical ties to New Ulm. Susan Hindermann Fields of Good Thunder is the great-granddaughter of the captain of the "Otter," Jacob Hindermann. She would like to see the city take action to preserve the artifact and commemorate the historical significance of the boiler. A historical marker at Riverside Park commemorates the history of river transportation on the Minnesota River and briefly mentions the "Otter. " Nowhere on the marker, or in the park, does it indicate what the artifact is and why it is important, Fields said. "I would like to see the boiler cleaned and painted, and if feasible, a cover of some sort placed over it to protect it from the elements and further deterioration," she said. "The boiler should have its own marker." Many types of markers available and working with the city to choose the appropriate style and creating the text for the marker would be something Fields would be interested in pursuing. "It is a part of history, and there are historic markers all over the city commemorating events and structures," she said. Members of the New Ulm City Council have forwarded the request to the Park and Recreation and the Cemetery and Monument commissions for further consideration. The boiler was hauled out of the Minnesota River in 1917 by Christ Filzen and members of the Junior Pioneers. They brought it to New Ulm, where it was carried in a parade and placed at Turner Hall. Eventually it was moved to Hermann Heights Park and then to Riverside Park in 1967, where it was placed on cement blocks. "It is important to the history of New Ulm and to the river, which is why we're here," Brown County Historical Society Director Bob Burgess said. "There will be a mention of the Otter in our steamboat section of the Museum of Transportation." Two flags flown on the "Otter" during its years of service were recently donated to the museum. One is prominently displayed in the main exhibit room. Steam boating on the Minnesota began in 1851 after the signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. With the establishment of Fort Ridgely in 1853, riverboat traffic increased, and towns grew along the river as supply depots. The history of the "Otter" goes back to the days of Napoleon, when two Frenchmen, who were no longer impressed with a dictatorship, were exiled with Victor Hugo to the Isle of Jersey. Shortly after exile, they made their way to England. They then booked passage to New York, where they arrived in 1855, bringing with them a steam boiler and an engine. After arriving in America, they set their sights on the growing territories in the West. They traveled to Henderson with their steam boiler and engine, and they established a grist-mill there. A few years after arriving in Henderson, the two brothers decided to get involved in the growing steamboat business and removed the boiler and the engine from their mill and placed them in their boat. The "Otter" was a side wheeler with two wheels and a single smoke stack that weighed approximately 300 tons and was mainly built as a tug, Burgess said. The "Otter" started carrying passengers and freight through New Ulm in 1865. It remained in private service until 1869, when it was purchased by the New Ulm Transportation Company. At the end of the Dakota Conflict, it was sunk below Kiesling's Foundry at the corner of Front and Center streets, near the old elevator. It was unearthed by an engineer at the City Mill and Captain Jacob Hindermann, who rebuilt the steamer in 1873 as a freight barge. That year the railroad reached Brown County, and riverboat traffic started dwindling. At the time the boat was rebuilt, the engine, which had originally been located in the bottom of the boat, was removed and placed in the center. When the boiler was being rebuilt, the flues were too short, a situation that was remedied by adding copper ends and a dome. The "Otter" remained in service on the river, with Hindermann at the helm, until 1878. He used it as a pleasure boat and to haul passengers to Redwood Falls. Historical records indicate that tickets were sold by the music section of Turner Hall for the last pleasure excursion from New Ulm to West Newton on July 14, 1878. In the winter of 1879, the steamer was placed in winter quarters on the river near Hindermann's farm in Ridgely Township in Nicollet County, near the town of West Newton. In the spring, the ice carried the boat over a rock in the river, where it keeled over and was stuck in the mud. The hull eventually rotted away leaving nothing but the boiler intact, forever sealing her fate. Because of its importance to New Ulm, Burgess hopes to one day have a model of the "Otter" inside a plexi-glass case in the Transportation Museum, if he can ever get true dimensions and an accurate picture of the front of the boat. "We can estimate the size, based on the dimensions of the wood planks being carried in the photo we have, but we have no picture of the front to know what she looked like," he said. "We can guess, but it helps to have an accurate picture."
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