AH-WR-0190

Kate Connor

Steamboat · United States · Lost April 1872 · Great Salt Lake

The reputed first steamer on the Great Salt Lake, built to haul railroad ties, was driven ashore and wrecked in an 1872 storm off Antelope Island.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Kate Connor was built in 1868 for General Patrick E. Connor, with her steam engine cast at Silver Iron Works in Salt Lake City, and is reputed to have been the first steamer to navigate the Great Salt Lake. She hauled railroad ties and telegraph poles across the lake for the Union Pacific Railroad. In April 1872, while carrying cedar posts with about ten people aboard including the owner Christopher Layton, she was driven ashore and wrecked in a storm off Antelope Island. No deaths were reported, and the vessel was out of service by late 1872.

Vessel

Built: 1868
Builder: Built for General Patrick E. Connor; engine by William J. Silver's Silver Iron Works
Yard: Salt Lake City, Utah
Material: Wood
Length: 55 ft
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Steam
Owners: Later owned by Christopher Layton

Loss

Date: April 1872
Cause: Storm
Location: Off Antelope Island, then called Church Island
Water: Great Salt Lake
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Cedar fence posts and railroad ties
Aboard: 10
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 40.96° N 112.21° W
Accuracy: General area only
Nearest: Antelope Island, Utah
Region: Great Salt Lake

General area only: coordinate of Antelope Island (formerly Church Island), the named place off which this vessel is recorded as stranded, not a surveyed wreck position.