Away, you rolling river
by chuckofish
Two hundred years ago the first steamboat arrived in St. Louis on (or around) July 27, 1817. The S.S. Zebulon M. Pike was a small steamboat, and its underpowered engine needed help from old-fashioned poles in the hands of cordellers before it could tie up at the dock at the foot of Market Street. This was on the natural riverbank. By the 1830s, the landing was paved with limestone. The red granite levee that still exists was built in 1868-69.
Built in Louisville, the Pike was the first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi River above the mouth of the Ohio River. Its voyage from Louisville took six weeks since the boat could run only in daylight. After the Pike’s arrival, no phase of life along the river was ever the same. Keelboats were instantly obsolete and the voyageurs who manned them soon passed from the scene.
Two months later a second steamboat arrived, the S.S. Constitution. Then the following spring, the S.S. Independence fought its way up the more challenging Missouri River as far as Franklin, about half-way across the soon-to-be state of Missouri. Next the S.S. Western Engineer, carrying the military/exploration party of Major Stephen Long, went up the Missouri as far as Council Bluffs.
Thus St. Louis was transformed into a bustling inland port.
dual personalities 
Cool!
The Mississippi is awesome! We learned on our bourbon tours that bourbon only exists because it aged on its steamboat ride down to New Orleans! So we have the Mississippi to thank for barrel-aged whiskey, too 😉
So awesome! I can’t wait to have that cool map of St. Louis in my office in Jeff City!