Transportation of Food: Ships: Steam Power

Unlike the east coast, the states west of the Appalachian Mountains had good access to navigable rivers. Bullboats, canoes, flatboats, and keelboats made it possible to grow grains and other foods in the Midwest and ship them down the Mississippi River system with its thousands of tributary rivers and streams. Robert Fulton had demonstrated the practicality of steamboats in 1807, and by 1821 there were seventy-two steamboats operating on western waters. Steamboats were not only faster than wagon transportation, they were also cheaper.