Picture a pirate — bandana, peg leg, parrot and all — and you can almost smell the ocean air. But maritime crime isn’t confined to the salty seas — the Midwest’s waterways have harbored their own share of marauders, smugglers and other waterborne criminals over the centuries. From bandits on the Ohio River to bootleggers running booze over the Great Lakes between Canada and the U.S., pirates have been a part of Midwestern history, even if they looked far different from the tropical archetype that pervades popular culture.
According to Chris Gilchrist, director emeritus of the Great Lakes Historical Society, that’s largely because those depictions are based on a different time and place.
“The phenomenon [of piracy] is mostly assigned in American history to the 16th, 17th and 18th century on the Atlantic and in the Caribbean,” Gilchrist said. “And so when we look at Great Lakes history, and we look at Great Lakes history and its development, it might not correspond chronologically with maritime activities of the Atlantic and the Caribbean of the 16th, 17th, and 18th century. … There is not enough economic development.”
Most criminal activity on the Great Lakes occurred later, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the lakes became a busy thoroughfare for commerce in the growing nation. Acts described by the legal definition of piracy — attacking and robbing ships — have been few and far between, Gilchrist said. However, other crimes have a larger history in the region, especially the smuggling of goods across the U.S.-Canada border, either to avoid tariffs or thwart prohibition.
Other instances of Midwest piracy occurred on the rivers and canals that brought the earliest European settlers westward in a time before railroads and highways; boats transporting pioneers and cargo often fell victim to robbers.
None of these historical Midwestern criminals resembled the pirates in Treasure Island or Pirates of the Caribbean, but they do have interesting stories that cover all chapters of American history and reveal the shadier side of the region’s past.
Marauders Terrorizing the Ohio River
Following the Revolutionary War, the new nation had few settlements west of the Appalachians and little official law enforcement. Settlers and traders traveled slowly down the Ohio River in barges or rafts piled high with cargo, making them vulnerable to attacks from robbers who hid along the banks of the river in wait. You can still visit a site of frequent pirate activity at Cave-in-Rock, a cave along the banks of the river near present-day Hardin County, Illinois, where marauders once lured, robbed and frequently murdered travelers.
Due to the threat of attacks, pioneers began to travel in flotillas led by an armed vessel. As law enforcement and military presence in the Midwest increased, piracy declined, and by the 1830s, it was largely a thing of the past.
While not as well known as their Caribbean counterparts, Midwestern waterway bandits did receive Hollywood treatment in the 1956 film “Davy Crockett and the River Pirates” and the 1962 drama “How the West Was Won.”
James Jesse Strang: Mormon Buccaneer or Libel Victim?
One of the strangest and most disputed pirate stories in the Midwest is that of James Jesse Strang, the leader of a sect in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After being excommunicated by the mainstream branch of the religion, Strang and his followers settled on Beaver Island, off the coast of Michigan. They immediately came into conflict with the non-Mormon residents of the island, who quickly fled. Strang and his followers took over the town government and he was elected to the Michigan state house.
Over time, allegations against Strang piled up, including murder, attacks on fishermen and the stealing of ships and supplies. Strang was also known to have declared himself king, though whether this was a religious or political title was disputed. Regardless, his reign ended in 1856 when he was killed by two assassins. His killers were never charged.
Was Strang a pirate menacing law-abiding folk or a persecuted leader of a marginalized faith? Gilchrist cautions that most of what we know about Strang comes from newspapers that were largely anti-Mormon.
Confederate Pirates in Sandusky Bay
Alongside religious conflict, piracy has also been used as a type of warfare. An instance of this occurred during the Civil War near Sandusky, Ohio.
John Y. Beall was a Confederate spy and an officer in the Confederate Navy. After participating in maritime raids, robberies and acts of sabotage along the Virginia coast, he was sent to Canada with a new mission: Beall and his team of 19 men hijacked a ferry on Lake Erie, with the intent to sail to Sandusky Bay, take over the USS Michigan and liberate 3,000 Confederate prisoners held on Johnson Island.
However, their plans failed when their compatriots assisting them aboard the USS Michigan were caught and Beall and his companions were forced to return to Canada. Beall was later arrested in Niagara Falls, New York and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging in 1865.
Al Capone’s Men on the “Detroit-Windsor Funnel”
While technically not piracy, Midwestern waterways were also the epicenter of alcohol smuggling during the era of prohibition. During this time, an estimated 75% of the liquor illegally imported into the US came through the “Detroit-Windsor Funnel,” a clandestine trade route between the two cities on either side of the US-Canada border.
The narrow Detroit River was the perfect location for “rumrunners” to smuggle their illicit cargo southward by boat during the warmer months and on sleds during the winter when the river froze over. Rumrunning became Detroit’s second-biggest industry, worth $215 million dollars a year, and attracted the likes of the infamous Purple Gang. Al Capone was also alleged to have been involved, and many believe the Valentine’s Day massacre was executed in retribution for interference on this route.
“Roaring” Dan Seavey
His most famous exploit was the theft of a ship called the Nellie Johnson. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Perhaps the most famous Midwestern pirate is “Roaring” Dan Seavey. Seavey was born in Portland, Maine, in 1865. After a stint in the Navy and a failed venture in the Klondike gold rush, he made over a million dollars through both legitimate and criminal business on Lake Michigan. Seavey hauled fruit and other cargo, poached venison, trafficked bootlegged liquor, ran a prostitution ring and owned several saloons. He was also named a U.S. marshall and was known for his barroom fights.
In 1908, “Roaring Dan” conducted his most famous exploit when he stole the Nellie Johnson and its cargo of cedar posts in Grand Haven, Wisconsin. Seavey got the ship’s captain and crew drunk, and took the schooner out onto the lake. The Revenue Cutter Service, the entity charged with patrolling the lakes at the time, sent an armed warship after him. After days of pursuit, Seavey tricked his pursuers into running aground, but was later caught and sent back to Chicago to stand trial. Charges were dropped when the Nellie Johnson’s captain didn’t show up to court — perhaps under threat or scared by Seavey’s reputation. Seavey always maintained he won the Nellie Johnson fair and square in a poker match.
Years later, as a penniless old man in a convalescent home in Pershigo, Wisconsin, “Roaring Dan” told his story to journalists who wrote sensationalist accounts of his exploits and immortalized his name throughout the region.
The fascination with “Roaring Dan”, who is now the namesake of a line of rum, mirrors much of the treatment that pirates across the world have received: A mostly fictitious pirate heritage lives on in coastal communities on the Great Lakes with themed bars, iconic statues and athletic team mascots. Even in landlocked Nebraska, the Midwest Pirate Fest brings crowds to the Great Plains to celebrate the lawless rogues of the high seas.
Gilchrist says that this romanticization of criminals is misguided. He said that as a historian, he has to burst people’s bubbles about Dan Seavey, whom he characterizes as a human trafficker given the criminal’s role in Great Lakes prostitution.
“All piracy is bad and 200 years of cultural excuses in literature and in movies and in television have created an image of them as kind of benign,” he said. “I would argue that that’s not true; that pirates, whether they’re on the Horn of Africa today, or whether they are on the Great Lakes, 1890s and early 1900s, or whether they are from the golden age of piracy in the 16th and 17th and 18th century … did illegal things and they killed people.”
