Editing Deforestation (section)

==== Steamboats ====
In the 19th century, the introduction of [[steamboat]]s in the [[United States]] was the cause of deforestation of banks of major rivers, such as the [[Mississippi River]], with increased and more severe flooding one of the environmental results. The steamboat crews cut wood daily from the riverbanks to fuel the steam engines. Between [[St. Louis]] and the confluence with the [[Ohio River]] to the south, the Mississippi became broader and shallower and changed its channel laterally. Attempts to improve navigation by the use of [[Snagboat|snag pullers]] often resulted in crews' [[clearing (geography)|clearing]] large trees 100 to {{convert|200|ft|m}} back from the banks. Several French colonial towns of the [[Illinois Country]], such as [[Kaskaskia, Illinois|Kaskaskia]], [[Cahokia, Illinois|Cahokia]] and St. Philippe, [[Illinois]], were flooded and abandoned in the late 19th century, with a loss to the cultural record of their [[archeology]].<ref>Norris, F. Terry (1997) [https://books.google.com/books?id=HwH3kdOgvfAC&pg=PA73 "Where Did the Villages Go? Steamboats, Deforestation, and Archaeological Loss in the Mississippi Valley"], in ''Common Fields: an environmental history of St. Louis'', Andrew Hurley, ed., St. Louis, MO: Missouri Historical Society Press, pp. 73–89. {{ISBN|978-1-883982-15-7}}.</ref>