Yellowstone (steamboat)

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Yellowstone was a side‑wheel steamboat built in Louisville, Kentucky, around 1830–1831 for the American Fur Company to run on the Missouri River and support fur trading up to the Yellowstone River.

Maiden voyage and early runs
- The Yellowstone began service on the Missouri River in 1831. On June 19, 1831, she reached Pierre, South Dakota, more than six hundred miles farther upriver than any other steamboat. She returned to St. Louis in July 1831.
- In 1832 she became the first steamboat to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone River.
- In July 1833, the crew and passengers were struck by cholera, and several people died. Captain Anson G. Bennett and the crew were reorganized to keep the boat going.

Rebuild and new duties
- In November 1835, the Yellowstone went to New Orleans for a major refit, adding a second boiler and updating fittings.
- She was sold to Thomas Toby & Brother to focus on cotton trade on the Brazos River in Texas, carrying freight and armed volunteers.

Role in the Texas Revolution
- In early 1836 the Yellowstone carried arms, ammunition, and forty-seven volunteers to support the Texan forces.
- In April 1836 she helped Sam Houston’s army by crossing the Brazos River and moving toward the Gulf as Texans fought Santa Anna’s forces.
- After the victory at San Jacinto, the Yellowstone waited nearby and then transported Sam Houston, the new president David Burnet, Santa Anna, and Mexican prisoners. She was later used as a packet boat on Buffalo Bayou and helped move mourners and important bodies along the Brazos.

Fate
- The ultimate fate of the Yellowstone is not clearly recorded. Texas legend says she sank in Buffalo Bayou in 1837, but some records show a Yellowstone on the Ohio River in 1837. A brass bell claimed to be from the Yellowstone is kept by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library in San Antonio.