Big Bone Steamers

1.  The first steamer, and the most well-known was the General Pike. Built in 1824, it was named after Zebulon  Pike, of Pike's Peak fame, whose wife is buried in Taylorsport, and was from the area.

2.  From 1825 was the Pilot, which sank near St. Louis after hitting a snag, a not uncommon way for steamers to meet their demise in those days.

3.  The Speedwell also hit a snag, and went down near Wheeling, West Virginia.

4.  The Chesapeake, about which very little is known

Fitzgerald notes that the salt making business in Big Bone probably prompted the need for transportation to ship the salt to markets.  He further talks about the huge amount of wood needed to make the fires to boil down the salt water, and that, ultimately, the salt making business as well as the steamboat making business came to halt, because there wasn't a tree left standing with five miles of Big Bone.

Most of this is from the work of Boone County historian William Fitzgerald.