Water Highway

Rivers once served as America’s superhighways, with westbound riverboats carrying cloth, hardware, paper, and mirrors from St. Louis to the frontier town of Old Franklin across the river near the railroad bridge, where traders transferred heavily laden mule-drawn wagons onto the Santa Fe Trail for journeys of 6 to 7 weeks. Wool, silver coins, and mules came from Mexico, and these goods, along with harvests from local farmlands and salt from local mineral springs, were loaded onto downstream riverboats. The area prospered with the Santa Fe trade, but Missouri River flooding repeatedly threatened it: in 1825 floodwaters nearly destroyed Old Franklin, and by 1828 the major riverboat landing serving the trade had moved upstream to a site near Independence, Missouri, though many traders still departed from central Missouri. Boonville traders such as William Harley worked as commissioning and forwarding agents, hauling westbound goods from St. Louis to the Santa Fe trailhead.

Boonville, Missouri · United States