In 1958, the first commercial steamboat was put into operation on the lake, and by 1894, the number was up to ten. Two of them, the Natty Bumppo and the Cyclone, could hold more than 300 passengers per boat. At this time, commercial transportation on the lake was developed to fill in the gap between rail traffic entering from the Catskills into Cooperstown, to Richfield Springs where it accessed a railway that linked to a railway between Albany and Buffalo, and the Erie Canal. The last commercial steamboat went out of business in 1933.