Adam Hoops's dream of creating a major transportation hub on the Allegheny River — on the scale of a Buffalo or a Pittsburgh — was never realized, and he himself died in poverty. Nonetheless, Olean prospered and was soon the central town of the region. Olean grew quickly as a transportation hub for migrants taking the Allegheny River into Ohio. For much of this era, Olean was larger and better known than its northern competitor, Buffalo. This period ended with the creation of the great canals, especially the Erie Canal in 1825. The Allegheny River was usually too shallow for the larger steamboats to navigate except in the spring, and only two steamboats—the "Allegheny" in 1830 and the "New Castle" of 1837—reached the city. A Genesee Valley Canal was extended to Olean and the Allegheny River in 1862, but the Allegheny's shallowness and the rise of the railroads rendered it obsolete before it even opened.