On the rivers, the steamboat had caused a revolution in time. Between 1821 and 1827, for example, replacement of northbound keelboats by steamboats cut the journey to Galena from over two months to less than a week. In the next decade, as speeds increased, given the improved technological adaptability of western-style boats to the rivers, the journey was shortened even more. By the 1840s, the average-sized boat could travel at 12 miles an hour downstream and 6 miles an hour upstream, speeds that reflected more the need for restraint in navigating the treacherous waters of the West than the capacity of the technology (considerably higher speeds could be achieved during the “races”).

In contrast, travel across the Mississippi valley by land remained, until the early 1850s, in the age of horse and oxen. Indeed, the soft bottoms of the Illinois prairies seem to have actually caused a worsening in land-transport speed and cost in the West compared with that in the East. Canals, which cut the cost but did not necessarily improve transport times, were by that time actively used in Ohio and a few had been opened across Illinois. The railroad, meanwhile, remained for most merchants a decade or more in the future. Consequently 30 miles a day, or about 3 miles an hour in a stage, cart, or wagon was considered a good speed. When the roads were muddy, 1 or 2 miles per hour was more likely to be attained. By horse one could travel faster, and farther, but to do so cost considerably more. For this reason, the stage and wagon, continued to bear the brunt of the land-transport burden.