Below Paducah, Kentucky, Bodmer sketched a view of the Ohio near the site formerly occupied by Fort Massac. Only a few scattered stones marked the spot when Bodmer saw it. Passing this same area in March 1833 Maximilian noted in his journal that the steamer stopped here at a small settlement to take on wood.

A few miles below Mount Vernon stood the village of Shawnee Town. Maximilian described it as "a dead, sad place" when he traveled this section of the Ohio en route to St. Louis in March, 1833 . About twenty-five miles beyond lay an unusual geological feature known as Cave-In-Rock on the Illinois side of the river near Cave-In-Rock Island, today within a state park.

Frequent stops were made by Ohio river craft to load or unload passengers and cargo and pick up cordwood for fuel. At such times Bodmer often went ashore to make studies of the river, its settlements, and its bustling commercial life. His diagram of the deck plan of the Homer, if lacking in picturesque detail, furnishes information about the usual riverboat accommodations of that day. As indicated in the drawing, passengers were housed above deck, the stores and cargo below.

Just after midnight on January 3, 1833, the Misssissippi steamer Homer arrived at Mount Vernon. Bodmer embarked upon it the following morning for New Orleans. During the next several weeks, he produced numerous studies of the scenery and settlements along the lower Ohio and Mississippi. Most of these are reproduced here for the first time. Bodmer's undated sketch of the Homer may have been made at any one of the stops along the course of his travels downriver.