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