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Flatboats and keelboats were used early on, but steamboats soon became the main way to travel on Western Virginia’s rivers.
Before Europeans arrived, Indians used rivers for travel and trade in bark and dugout canoes. Bark canoes were light, easy to fix, and could even be used as shelters. Dugouts were heavier and stayed in the water.
Early settlers used and improved upon Indian dugout and bark canoes for travel and trade. As commerce grew, they developed keelboats and flatboats.Keelboats (pictured on right) were long, narrow boats that could travel both downstream and upstream...
James Rumsey (1743–1792) invented a steam engine that could power a boat using water jets. He first showed it on the Potomac River near Shepherdstown in 1787, 20 years before Robert Fulton's steamboat, though Fulton’s design became more popular.Ru...
The first steamboat on inland rivers, the New Orleans, was launched in 1811 at Pittsburgh. In 1816, the Washington, built in Wheeling, introduced major design improvements. By the 1830s, better sidewheel and sternwheel boats helped steamboats beco...
In West Virginia, steamboats ran on rivers like the Ohio, Kanawha, and Monongahela. There were three main types: packetboats (for passengers and light freight), ferryboats (for people and vehicles), and towboats (for pushing barges). Other types i...
In the 1840s, cannel coal was mined in the Coal River area of Boone County because it could be turned into coal oil for lighting. William Madison Peyton and others formed the Coal River Navigation Company to improve river travel and hired engineer...
From 1916 to 1970, the Marietta Manufacturing Company (MMC) was a major shipbuilder and employer in Point Pleasant. The company began in Ohio but moved to Point Pleasant after a flood in 1913. It quickly grew, especially during World Wars I and II...
Modern towboats use radar, sonar, and satellite systems to move goods cheaply and efficiently. Rivers like the Ohio, Monongahela, Big Sandy, and Kanawha are still important for shipping in West Virginia. Each year, hundreds of millions of tons of ...
Passenger travel on West Virginia rivers is mostly a thing of the past. Excursion boats, like the P. A. Denny, have had limited success. While the Blennerhassett Island boats still run from Parkersburg, most other river tours in towns like Hunting...