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Far West, the

Sternwheeler on the Missouri River in 1877.[1]

190 feet long with a 33-foot beam, launched at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1870.[1]

In May of 1876, captained by Grant Marsh, the Far West was contracted by the U. S. Army along with the steamboat Josephine to ferry supplies for the Terry-Custer campaign against the Sioux. Knowing that the Far West could travel further up the Yellowstone River, General Alfred H. Terry made the sternwheeler his expedition headquarters.

On the Yellowstone River on June 21, a few miles east of Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory, Colonel George Armstrong Custer met with Terry aboard the far West to discuss battle plans to engage the Sioux. On the morning of June 22, the steamboat moved upriver to the mouth of the Little Bighorn River and moored on a sand bar as protection from hostile Sioux along the shore. On June 25, the Battle of the Little Bighorn began under Custer's command. By the next day, Custer's entire immediate command was wiped out. Nearby detachments suffered many casualties. Fifty wounded soldiers were brought aboard the Far West on June 30 and returned to Fort Lincoln for medical care in a record-breaking trip of more than 750 miles in 54 hours.[1]

Stampede: In April of 1877,[2] Dandy Jim Buckley bought passage aboard the Far West at Vermillion, Dakota Territory, bound for St. Louis. Along the way, his new holdout device developed a squeak and Captain Grant Marsh had him put off the boat, marooning him on a sand bar[3] at Winnebago Bend.[2]

The Far West continued plying the Missouri until it wrecked in 1883.[1]