The Scow

During the inaugural season of the glass bottom boat tours, passengers and crew spotted some previously undiscovered wooden wreckage close to shore along Grand Island’s “Thumb.” The wreckage consisted of a section of a schooner’s bottom about 150 feet long by 35 feet wide along with a part of a side 130 feet long and 15 feet deep. At first the wooden hull pieces were thought to be the remains of the schooner Alta, which went ashore somewhere near Trout Bay in 1905. Closer examination showed the wreckage to be that of a scow schooner rather than the conventionally constructed Alta. A scow schooner was a cheaply built vessel with a flat bottom, flat sides and a square bow and stern. Historical research has failed to produce any record of a scow schooner meeting its end anywhere near Grand Island.