Rise and Decline of Transportation on the Upper Cumberland River

Captain Hunter's 1907 photograph depicts Electra, a stern-wheel packet with wood hull, at dock. Built by the Red River Line in 1897, it operated on the Red River before moving to the Cumberland and Missouri, finally ending its days in Mobile before capsizing in 1917. Most steamboats lasted only five years in the hard work of moving supplies and passengers along the river. Electra, built before the addition of locks and dams to help control the Cumberland, would have faced dangerous shoals and snags along the river.