Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 28, 1818 A pioneering sidewheel steamboat known as Walk-in-the-Water was launched at Black Rock, New York. (An independent community at that time, Black Rock is now part of Buffalo.) Walk-in-the-Water became the first steam-powered vessel to sail on Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. An engineer named Noah Brown designed Walk-in-the-Water. Robert McQueen was the... Continue Reading →
April 16, 1831 The side-wheeler steamboat Yellowstone (also spelled out as Yellow Stone) departed St. Louis, Missouri, for her maiden voyage. The vessel, which was characterized by the St. Louis Register later that spring as a “new and handsome steam boat,” had been built in Louisville, Kentucky, for merchant John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. The... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 