Since its founding, Yankton enjoyed a natural advantage as a steamboat landing along the Missouri River due to the fact that its landing stretched along the entire length of the town's riverfront. The first steamboat to reach Yankton from St. Louis arrived in 1859, providing goods and supplies to settlers and fur-traders in upper and central Dakota. After that, the city continued to grow, particularly after gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874 and prospectors rushed into Dakota Territory. By 1880, Yankton had become an established riverboat port on the Missouri River, but the city's status as an important port was literally crushed on March 27, 1881 when an ice dam on the Missouri River burst, sending flood waters and giant blocks of ice flowing towards the town. The resulting flood waters continued to accumulate behind the debris, and by March 29, the town's riverfront and downtown were covered in water, ice and rock, destroying or stranding several riverboats that were moored there. As a result of this flood, and the expansion of railroads as a preferred method of shipping goods (the railroad reached Yankton in 1872, and the rest of Dakota throughout the 1870s), Yankton's river boat traffic was reduced, and the city's role as a prominent stopping point on the way west dwindled over the next several years.