Nautical historian John M. MacFarlane shares a carefully curated collection of 2,100 histories of the sternwheelers and sidewheelers that served in waters of the Pacific and Arctic watersheds of western North America. He has assembled detailed accounts in an easy-to-read, easy-to-access book that will please the casual reader as well as the most dedicated nautical historian. These magnificent vessels are most often associated with the waters of the Mississippi River. But they were also an integral part of the development of the west, contributing to their own demise with the construction of railways and roads that made them obsolete. So quickly did they disappear that they have become largely forgotten. The romance associated with these vessels is a throwback to an era which is remembered with nostalgia. This encyclopedic work is both a reference and a glimpse into river and lake travel in the era of steam.