The steamboat Bertrand was carrying passengers and cargo up the Missouri River to the mining towns in Montana Territory when it hit a snag in the river 30 miles north of Omaha and sank on April 1, 1865. An excavation in 1968, more than a hundred years later, recovered a large portion of its cargo.
Today, artifacts from the Bertrand are on display in a museum at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri Valley, Iowa. The display makes up the largest intact collection of Civil War-era artifacts in the U.S., representing an invaluable time capsule of everyday life during that period.