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Show When Steamboat Trade Boomed Steamboat trade on the Missis sippi reached its highest peak in the 50s and on the Missouri between the years 1S.T) and lSoU Fifty-nine steamboats were operating on the lower Missouri in ISf.S. before the Civil war most boats paid for themselves them-selves and viclded good profits, as there was practically no competition competi-tion The whole aspect was changed by the war. Many boats were taken over bv military authorities and the war activities on the river interfered inter-fered with trade. Later the building build-ing of the railroads took away most ofthe river traffic and after 1SS7 steamboats were practically useless |