The earliest explorers and the first settlers entered Illinois along river routes. Joliet and Marquette in 1673 traversed the full length of the state along the Mississippi, and on their return journey later in the same year they crossed the full width of the Si ate, through the Illinois Valley and the Chicago Outlet to Lake Michigan. La Salle in 1679 first visited Illinois, entering the state by way of the Kankakee route, and continuing his journey along the Illinois. The first settle ments in Illinois, about the year 1700, at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, were made by pioneers who came in boats clown the Missis sippi. George Rogers Clark and his company of soldiers in 1778 were the first to carry the stars and stripes on Illinois soil, and their entrance was made near Metropolis in Massac County after a journey of hundreds of miles on the Ohio River.
The canoe was the means of transport of the early explorers in Illinois, and it still holds its place among water craft for pleasure seekers and fishermen. The flatboat of the pioneer quickly gave way to a safer and more rapid method of travel with the appearance of the steamboat. La Salle's "Griffin," the first lake boat built for carrying on commerce with the Illinois country, failed to reach an Illinois port, and more than another century elapsed before the sailboat found its way to the Chicago River. Soon thereafter the lake steamer put in its appearance, and lake transportation has since been an ever increasing factor in the commercial welfare of Illinois.
River first steamboat on the Ohio River was operated in 1811, and steamboat traffic on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers became at once an important influence on the settlement and development of Illinois. Shawneetown on the Ohio, just below the junction with the Wabash, and on the northern edge of the Illinois Ozarks, became an important port of entry for pioneers whose destination lay north of the Ozark Ridge. During the years of Illinois Territory and the early years of statehood, Shawneetown, because of its impor tance as a river port, was the leading city in eastern Illinois. St. Louis was the chief river port from which the steamboat lines proceeded to Illinois towns along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. In the year 1S50 the steamboat arrivals at St. Louis numbered 2,S99. Of this number 785 came from the Illinois River, 634 of which were from Peoria.
The northernmost river port of the state is Galena, at which the first steamboat arrived in 1S22. Regular traffic was estab lished in 1827. The number of steamboat arrivals at Galena
was 153 in 1835 and 350 in 1837. The arrivals remained near this number each year until 1855, at which date the railroad reached Galena and the river traffic suffered a sharp and perma nent decline. From the appearance of the first steamboat until the arrival of the railroad, the river traffic was supreme for all towns along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
The first steamboat appeared on the Illinois River in 1S28. Beardstown was founded in 1829, and by 1831 steamboats were arriving from St. Louis almost daily. Peoria, which had been settled by the French as early as 1725, received its first steamboat in 1S29. Three steamboats were making regular trips to Peoria in 1S33; seven in 1S34; 44 in 1840; 60 in 1841; 150 in 1844. After this date the number of arrivals, rather than the number of different boats, was reported. There were 694 arrivals of steamboats at Peoria in 1845; 1,286 in 1850; about 1,800 in 1852. In addition to these there were large numbers of canal boats, barges, and flatboats. When Peoria was first reached by steamboat, not a town had been settled farther up the Illinois River. With the new means of transport available, settlements were started during the next few years at nearly all the towns of present importance between Peoria and the head of easy river naviga tion at La Salle. Settle ments were also established at a few sites which were later abandoned.
The twenty years, 1S35 55, is the period of steam boat supremacy on the Illi nois River. The decline in river traffic was as rapid as its rise. In 1870 only four steamboats were making regular trips between St. Louis and Peoria, and only one of these went up the river to La Salle. In the short space of 20 years the river and canal boats, as a new method of transporta tion for Illinois, had risen more rapidly and had be come more effective than an earlier generation had sup posed possible. In less than another twenty years this new, cheap, rapid, and safe means of transportation was all but discarded by the still more rapid rise of another and more effective competitor—the railroad.
Today all large river ports in Illinois have railway con nections. The largest ports without railroads are Nauvoo in Hancock County on the River, Elizabethtown and Rosiclare in Hardin County on the Ohio, and Hardin, Calhoun County, on the Illinois. The population of Nauvoo in 1910 was 1,020, and of each of the others between 600 and 700.