05/07/2026
The need to transport cargo and passengers from Potosi Port to Iowa even preceded the Specht Brothers steam-powered ferry ‘Teal’, as seen in this enhanced picture. The ‘Teal’, build in 1893, operated for 12 years before it was sold to the Potosi Brewing Company in 1905, and renamed ‘Potosi’. Almost forty-five years before the ‘Teal”, however, Hiram Weld, of Weld’s Landing, IA (later renamed Specht’s Ferry) built a horse-tread “flatboat”, or “horse-ferry”, to traverse the Mississippi River. Built in 1850, it resembled many of the popular horse-powered designs used up and down the Mississippi River and other rivers in the central and eastern US. These early large boats used one or two horses, sometimes two yoked together, on an inclined treadmill system. The forward movement of the horse’s front feet caused the treadmill to rotate, with that power being transferred to the paddle wheel, (or two paddle wheels, depending on the boat’s design), propelling the boat forward. Southwest Wisconsin Brewery historian/writer John Dutcher noted that the gradual sloping riverbanks made for a good landing site at Potosi and other locations. Interestingly, Dutcher added that the Potosi Port was also important to horse-drawn covered wagons in the mid to late 1800’s that were loaded with cargo and settlers needing to cross the Mississippi River. Upon reaching the Iowa shore at Weld’s Landing, they traveled south about 12 miles on a rough road named ‘Riverside’ to Dubuque and then all points west. Submitted by Dennis & Kathy Schumacher.
