The plank road linking Columbia to the river port of Providence was built as a hoped-for solution to Columbia's lack of a reliable river connection, reaching its peak of success when it opened in 1856 and collapsing into failure by the next year. River towns such as Glasgow, Boonville, and Rocheport had boat landings, but Columbia did not, so with the Missouri River nearby, investors saw a good road to a port as a practical alternative to muddy dirt roads and still-untested railroads. The Columbia and Missouri River Plank Road Company formed in 1853, chose Providence, 10 miles away, as the port, and advanced a project strongly promoted by Providence businessman John Parker, owner of the hotel and port house. Providence itself had been laid out a mile and a half north of Nashville after that town was swept away by flood in 1844. In 1854, the construction contract went to Jacob Barcus and Samuel Leonard of Louisiana, Mo., and work began in fall 1854 with completion planned for 1855. The roadbed was graded and drained, and the middle 8-12 feet was covered with wooden planks or crushed rock, while a sawmill halfway along the route cut a mile of planking each month. Although the road was not ready until spring 1856, it cost a reasonable $33,000, but weathering and heavy freight traffic quickly ruined it. In February 1857, the Weekly Missouri Statesman reported that thaw and rain had considerably injured the road between Providence and Columbia. By August 1857, after operating less than 18 months, it could not pay its stockholders and was foreclosed for $8,700. The road lingered on in poor condition; after a Fourth of July trip in 1863, Thomas Gentry wrote that the hack at times went up and down like a ship riding ocean waves. Later that year the road was sold at auction for $400, and in 1866 the last owners surrendered their interests to the Boone County Court. William Switzler's 1882 History of Boone County, Missouri, gave its epitaph: in a few years the road was a ruin, and not a plank of it remained.