The Illinois River once carried the entire Midwest.

In this episode, time traveler Crystal Carson Sterling steps into the muddy, chaotic riverfront of 1880s Peoria — when giant paddlewheel steamboats ruled transportation, whiskey warehouses lined the docks, and thousands of workers moved cargo by hand every single day.

Before highways…Before airports…Before interstates…

THIS was the center of commerce.

Follow Crystal as she walks through crowded docks filled with smoke, livestock, freight wagons, whiskey barrels, gas lamps, saloons, and massive steamboats powering the American frontier forward.

Peoria was booming. Filthy. Loud. Alive.

And almost nobody today realizes just how important the Illinois River once was.