June 17 – On this day in Montana History in 1832 Pierre Chouteau brought his steamship the Yellow Stone up the Missouri River to Fort Union on the eastern Montana border. It was the farthest steamships came up the Missouri for the next 28 years until shallow draft boats could make it all the way to Fort Benton. On board the ship that day in 1832 was artist George Catlin who became legendary for his paintings of Native American life in Montana and the West.