 Water transport increased through the 1850s with multiple craft ferrying pioneers , emigrants and miners ; many of these runs were from St. Louis or Independence to near Omaha . There , most of these people would set out overland along the large but shallow and <unk> Platte River , which was described by pioneers as " a mile wide and an inch deep " and " the most magnificent and useless of rivers " . <unk> navigation peaked in 1858 with over 130 boats operating full @-@ time on the Missouri , with many more smaller vessels . Many of the earlier vessels were built on the Ohio River before being transferred to the Missouri . Side @-@ <unk> steamboats were preferred over the larger <unk> used on the Mississippi and Ohio because of their greater maneuverability . 
