Editing Steamboat (section)

====Mississippi and Missouri river traffic====
For most of the 19th century and part of the early 20th century, trade on the [[Mississippi River]] was dominated by paddle-wheel steamboats. Their use generated rapid development of economies of port cities; the exploitation of agricultural and commodity products, which could be more easily transported to markets; and prosperity along the major rivers. Their success led to penetration deep into the continent, where ''[[Anson Northup]]'' in 1859 became first steamer to cross the [[Canada–United States border|Canada–US border]] on the [[Red River of the North|Red River]]. They would also be involved in major political events, as when [[Louis Riel]] seized ''[[International (steamship)|International]]'' at [[Fort Garry]], or [[Gabriel Dumont (Métis leader)|Gabriel Dumont]] was engaged by ''[[Northcote (steamboat)|Northcote]]'' at [[Battle of Batoche|Batoche]]. Steamboats were held in such high esteem that they could become state symbols; the [[Iowa (steamboat)|Steamboat ''Iowa'']] (1838) is incorporated in the [[Seal of Iowa]] because it represented speed, power, and progress.{{Citation needed |date=November 2012}}
[[File:Mississippi River in Louisiana Steamboat Natchez.jpg|left|thumb|The ''Natchez'' operates out of New Orleans. There are other paddlewheelers on the Mississippi, but the ''[[Natchez (boat)|Natchez]]'' and the ''[[American Queen]]'' are the only two that are propelled by steam.]]

At the same time, the expanding steamboat traffic had severe adverse environmental effects, in the Middle Mississippi Valley especially, between St. Louis and the river's confluence with the [[Ohio River|Ohio]]. The steamboats consumed much wood for fuel, and the river floodplain and banks became deforested. This led to instability in the banks, addition of silt to the water, making the river both shallower and hence wider and causing unpredictable, lateral movement of the river channel across the wide, ten-mile floodplain, endangering navigation. Boats designated as snagpullers to keep the channels free had crews that sometimes cut remaining large trees {{convert|100|–|200|ft}} or more back from the banks, exacerbating the problems. In the 19th century, the flooding of the Mississippi became a more severe problem than when the floodplain was filled with trees and brush.{{Citation needed |date=November 2012}}

[[File:American Queen Eads Bridge.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[American Queen]]'', the world's largest operating river steamboat]]
Most steamboats were destroyed by boiler explosions or fires—and many sank in the river, with some of those buried in silt as the river changed course. From 1811 to 1899, 156 steamboats were lost to snags or rocks between St. Louis and the Ohio River. Another 411 were damaged by fire, explosions or ice during that period.<ref>{{cite book |first=F Terry |last=Norris |chapter=Where Did the Villages Go? Steamboats, Deforestation, and Archaeological Loss in the Mississippi Valley |title=Common Fields: an Environmental History of St. Louis |editor-first=Andrew |editor-last=Hurley |location=St. Louis, MO |publisher=Missouri Historical Society Press |date=1997 |page=82}}</ref> One of the few surviving Mississippi sternwheelers from this period, ''[[Julius C. Wilkie]]'', was operated as a [[museum ship]] at [[Winona, Minnesota]], until its destruction in a fire in 1981. The replacement, built ''in situ'', was not a steamboat. The replica was scrapped in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/thursday-throwback-winona-s-wilkie-the-ugly-tug-that-got/article_5c0c91a7-2147-5852-a153-632d84bf7c36.html|title=THURSDAY THROWBACK: Winona's Wilkie, the ugly tug that got a makeover|last=Christenson|first=Jerome|website=Winona Daily News|date=September 2016 |language=en|access-date=2019-02-24}}</ref>{{Citation needed |date=November 2012}}

From 1844 through 1857, luxurious [[palace steamer]]s carried passengers and cargo around the North American Great Lakes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Niagara |at=Service history |url=http://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/explore_niagara_serv2.cfm |website=Wisconsin shipwrecks |publisher=University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute |access-date=10 July 2007 |archive-date=13 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713074203/http://www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org/explore_niagara_serv2.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Great Lakes passenger steamers]] reached their zenith during the century from 1850 to 1950. The {{SS|Badger}} is the last of the once-numerous passenger-carrying steam-powered [[Train ferry|car ferries]] operating on the Great Lakes. A unique style of [[bulk carrier]] known as the [[lake freighter]] was developed on the Great Lakes. The ''St. Marys Challenger'', launched in 1906, is the oldest operating steamship in the United States. She runs a Skinner Marine Unaflow 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engine as her power plant.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/stmaryschallenger.htm |title=St. Marys Challenger |first=George |last=Wharton |website=Boat nerd}}</ref>

Women started to become steamboat captains in the late 19th century. The first woman to earn her steamboat master's license was [[Mary Millicent Miller]], in 1884.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC&pg=PA621|title=The Encyclopedia of Louisville|last=Kleber|first=John E.|date=2001|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=0813128900|pages=621|language=en}}</ref> In 1888, [[Callie Leach French]] earned her first class license.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12325931/|title=Runs a Steamer|date=23 February 1898|work=The Wichita Daily Eagle|access-date=6 May 2018|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> In 1892, she earned a [[Sea captain|master's license]], becoming the only woman to hold both and operating on the Mississippi River.<ref name=":0" /> French towed a showboat up and down the rivers until 1907 and boasted that she'd never had an accident or lost a boat.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=https://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/women/changing/river.htm|title=Women & The Sea|website=The Mariner's Museum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106051200/http://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/women/changing/river.htm|archive-date=2011-01-06|url-status=dead|access-date=7 May 2018}}</ref> Another early steamboat captain was [[Blanche Douglass Leathers]], who earned her license in 1894.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/09/01/steamboats-female-pilots-and-the-rio-grande-by-darlene-franklin/|title=STEAMBOATS, FEMALE PILOTS, AND THE RIO GRANDE! by Darlene Franklin – Petticoats & Pistols|date=1 September 2012|work=Petticoats & Pistols|access-date=7 May 2018}}</ref> [[Mary Becker Greene]] earned her license in 1897 and along with her husband started the [[Delta Queen Steamboat Company|Greene Line]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19887074/|title=Records show there were at least|date=2 December 1970|work=Quad-City Times|access-date=7 May 2018|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

=====Steamboats in rivers on the west side of the Mississippi River=====
Steamboats also operated on the [[Red River of the South|Red River]] to [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]], Louisiana.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In April 1815, Captain Henry Miller Shreve was the first person to bring a steamboat, the Enterprise, up the Red River.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

By 1839 after Captain [[Henry Miller Shreve]] broke the [[Great Raft]] log jam had been 160 miles long on the river.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brock |first1=Eric J. |last2=Joiner |first2=Gary |title=Red River Steamboats |date=1999 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-0168-0 }}{{page needed|date=April 2022}}</ref>

In the late 1830s, the steamboats in rivers on the west side of the Mississippi River were a long, wide, shallow draft vessel, lightly built with an engine on the deck. These newer steamboats could sail in just 20 inches of water. Contemporaries claimed that they could "run with a lot of heavy dew".<ref>[https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/steamboats] Encyclopedia | United States History | Steamboats</ref>