Passengers boats on the Illinois Michigan Canal were a common site from 1848–1854.  These boats were known as packet boats (a reference to the packets of mail that they also carried).  However, they also transported oysters, furniture, and retail merchandise.    They travelled between Chicago and LaSalle.    The ticket price was $4.  They were pulled by horses or mules.  They travelled at the rate of 5–6 miles per hour.  Total trip time was well over 20 hours.   Previously this trip was made by stage coach at a speed of 3 miles per hour. 
     Average boat size was 76 x 15 feet.  The boats handled between 90–120 people.
Meals were provided.  Passengers slept on the floor or on shelves. The females were separated from the males by a curtain.  There was obviously no indoor plumbing and a chamber pot was used.  The peak usage of canal boats was in 1848–1852.  Names of packet boats included New Orleans, Illinois, Saint Louis, Queen of the Prairies.  Famous  passengers included A. Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Dickens, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
The packet boat had a short life span on the canal.  They were replaced by the railroads, first the Chicago and Rock Island. The railroads could travel at a faster pace and operated year round.  The Canal was non operational in the winter. 
     An interesting fact is that a replica of the canal packet boat was built in 1908. It docks on the canal in LaSalle near Lock 14.  It has an aluminum hull and a cabin of white cedar.  It measures 76 x 15 ft.  During the spring and summer, mule pulled rides are offered.  The boat travels from its docking site to the aqueduct over the Little Vermilion River and back.  The name of the boat is the Volunteer.

The Volunteer.