During the nineteenth century, steamboats were the best way to transport goods on the Mississippi River. It was the first way of transportation that could be sent upstream. Before the steamboat, goods and information would be sent on flatboats down the Mississippi River to hopefully make it to the correct destination. Steamboats were used often until the railroads came into the picture in the early twentieth century. .
Americans John Fitch and James Rumsey were the first to make an attempt at building a steamboat in the 1790s. Although the partners had many good designs and ideas, they did not catch on with the public. Oliver Evans followed Fitch and Rumsey by fastening a steam engine on a boat, attaching wheels to the boat, and driving it through Philadelphia. This display proved that steam power had a bright future in the transportation industry. The first steamboat to sail down the Mississippi River was designed and organized by Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton. The boat was named the New Orleans or Orleans for short. She made her debut in 1811, traveling from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The first upriver voyage, however, was made by a boat created by Henry Miller Shreve. The steamboat was named the Enterprise and sailed from New Orleans to Pittsburgh in 1815. Now that everyone knew about steamboats, more and more companies began to make them. Speed became a factor in the making of steamboats as a result of this. At first, the steamboats ran about eight miles per hour downstream and three miles per hour upstream. In 1817 a great achievement was made with a twenty-five day trip from New Orleans to Louisville. About ten years later in 1827, eight days was all it took for the very same trip. .
The steamboats that sailed on the Mississippi River all had the same classic look. They had, "a two-story deck, a stern-mounted paddle wheel powered by a high-pressure steam engine, a shallow, flat-bottomed hull, and a pilothouse framed by two tall chimneys" (First).