Roger M. McCoy Water routes soon became as important as wagon trails for migration and the movement of goods in the nineteenth century. With the increased use of waterways also came a proliferation of river boats of many designs and purposes. This series of blogs explores the development and use of river boats on the inland waterways: types of boats, men who invented them, first person accounts of men who stoked the fires, handled the loads, and piloted the boats, along with all the hazards of river travel and some of the notable ship wrecks. First, let’s look at the fortunate geography of rivers in the United States and how they became major routes for developing the land. The Mississippi River provides an extensive waterway that stretches from the southernmost to the northernmost extremities of the United States from the Gulf of Mexico in the south and pointing toward Canada at the north end. From the east the Ohio River, with its tributaries stretching to the Allegheny range in the central Appalachians, flows into the Mississippi. The largest of the Ohio River tributaries, the Tennessee River, drains most of Tennessee plus part of northern Alabama, Georgia, and western Virginia. From the west the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers flow eastward out of the Rocky Mountains joining the Mississippi. The total area drained by the Mississippi River system covers forty-percent of the 48 contiguous states, much of which is agricultural or rangeland. This immense river basin was viewed very early as a vital corridor for an expanding empire, and for a century the three great rivers (Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers) served as major routes for movement into the new land that became the United States. President Thomas Jefferson was among those who saw the potential of the vast land and sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition in 1804 to explore and map the region. John Frémont, John Powell, Edward Steptoe, and others continued the great western mapping project. With the addition in 1825 of the Erie Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River, it became possible to travel by boat from New York to Lake Michigan. Later a 96 mile-long Illinois and Michigan Canal was built from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. When that was completed in 1848 it was possible to transport goods by river and canal from New York City to the Gulf of Mexico and all points between without using a seagoing vessel and avoiding the hazards of sea travel. The young nation was now connected from its northern border to the Gulf Coast and eastward to New York. Explorers and trappers traveled westward via the Missouri River to the Northern Rockies very early, but the Missouri was considered a more dangerous route for larger boats because of its strong currents, snags, and sandbars. From the beginning of U.S. history the Mississippi was seen as the single most important river on the American continent. Its 1,245,000 square-mile drainage basin covers most of the central plains of the United States from the Appalachians to the Rockies. It became an essential waterway considered vital to the ambitions of an expanding nation and the key to what many called “Manifest Destiny.” Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined in 1845, espoused the idea that the United States was destined by God to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. It became a rallying cry in the mid-nineteenth century for westward expansion and the river routes in the mid-continent were an essential component of that expansion. People and goods could travel on rivers and canals from New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico or west into the northern Rocky Mountains, including present day Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. In the beginning the only means of river travel was on rafts, flatboats, or keel boats, but they required poling or rowing and moved very slowly, especially when moving upstream. Many men earned money poling cargo rafts down the Mississippi, including young Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. Fortunately that difficult mode of travel was soon to change. A first effort at steam-powered boats was made in 1787 by American John Finch who constructed a boat with eight steam-powered oars on each side. Finch’s steamboat never progressed beyond the experimental stage before it was superseded by a more practical steamboat designed by Robert Fulton. A New York City inventor and engineer, Robert Fulton became interested in steam power while visiting England, where he saw the steam engine invented by James Watt in 1776. After seeing the Watt engine, Fulton returned to the U.S. and in 1807 applied a steam engine of similar design to a boat, the Clermont, creating the world’s first commercially successful steamboat with a paddle wheel. Although Fulton’s steamboat first traveled only the Hudson River Valley, the potential for steamboats on the great interior river system became immediately apparent. Since that time the Mississippi and its tributaries have become important routes for cargo to and from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Omaha, Nebraska, Minneapolis, MInnesota, down to New Orleans and all points between. Canals connect the Great Lakes into the system via the Illinois River and eastward to New York via the Hudson River or along the St Lawrence River to the Atlantic.
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