Growing Beyond Their Dreams

The first hotel was a two story stone structure on the west end of Market Street opened and run by Reuben Wright.

Another hotel, was located more than a block west of what later became the business portion of Market Street on the South West corner of Seventh and Market.

There would eventually be three hotels and seven livery barns in Steamboat Rock, two on Market Street, and one on Main. Each of the hotels had a livery barn, and there were four more that operated independently. Both the hotel and livery were very important since the only means of travel was by horseback, buggy or wagon. This was slow transportation, and if traveling from one town to the next on business, it often meant staying over night. A traveler not only needed a bed for himself, but for his horse as well. Some were not willing to pay for a room, or felt it was too much of a luxury. These often would bed down with their horse in the livery barn.