 Beginning in 1828 , steamboats began to travel the Mississippi River as far north as St. Anthony Falls , the upper limit of commercial navigation on the Mississippi , until two dams and a series of locks were built between 1948 and 1963 . The steamboat journey began to attract the attention of tourists , and in 1835 well known artist of American Indian life George Catlin made a trip by steamboat up the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony and Fort Snelling . Impressed with the scenery , Catlin proposed a " Fashionable Tour " of the upper Mississippi , saying : 
