The Cumberland River has fueled this region’s economy for thousands of years. Native Americans hunted deer and turkey here and harvested mussels and fish from the river. Benjamin Price, who came to this area in 1775, was the first of many settlers, and soon flatboats were taking crops downriver and returning with manufactured goods. In 1833, the steamboat Jefferson docked at Mill Springs, and steamboats soon became regular visitors when conditions on the Cumberland allowed. In summer and fall, sandbars and snags made steam travel impossible above Nashville, but trade remained lively, and a steamboat’s arrival often brought mail, fashions, or visiting friends. During the Civil War, the river was a lifeline for Confederate troops here and across the river at Beech Grove. After the war, it remained important to life at Mill Springs, but the rise of railroads and the lack of resources to improve the upper Cumberland caused river traffic to dwindle, and the last working steamboat docked here in 1933. A new era began during World War Two with the construction of hydroelectric dams, and Wolf Creek Dam, completed in 1952, created Lake Cumberland, where hundreds of pleasure craft travel every summer.