Commissioned by Pierre Chouteau of the American Fur Company, the Yellow Stone was the first steamboat to ply the upper Missouri River above Council Bluffs, Iowa. Loaded with trade goods including gunpowder, beads, knives, tobacco, and liquor, it arrived at Fort Tecumseh, the forerunner of Fort Pierre Chouteau, in the spring of 1831. Traders at the fort and its network of trading houses bartered these goods with American Indians in exchange for beaver, bison, and other animal furs. This trade made Fort Pierre Chouteau one of the largest economic centers in the Northwest and brought great wealth to Chouteau and his investors. Steamboats like the Yellow Stone revolutionized the trade by replacing man-powered keelboats with steam-powered vessels that were faster, larger, and required fewer men, making the trade more profitable. Steamboats dominated shipping along the upper Missouri until the arrival of railroads in the 1880s.