The first steamboat to operate on the Great Lakes was the Walk-in-the-Water in 1818. The vessel allegedly took its name from a Native American who remarked that Robert Fulton's original steamship appeared to walk on water. The people living around the Great Lakes during the early 19th century referred to the boat merely as "the steamboat" as it was the only steamboat operating on the Great Lakes during its existence. Scott 2409 Walk in the Water