The Montana was a Missouri River stern-wheel steamboat, one of three "mega-steamboats" (along with its sister boats the Wyoming and the Dakota) built in 1879 at the end of the steamboat era on the Missouri—when steamboats were soon to be supplanted by the nation's expanding railroad network. It was 250 feet (76 m) long (excluding the paddle wheel) and 48.8 feet (14.9 m) wide and weighed 959 tons (870 tonnes), excluding cargo. For a while the Montana's size allowed it to compete with the railroads, but the railroads continued to close the gap. On June 22, 1884, the Montana met its fate when it collided with an obstruction near Bridgeton, Missouri, variously reported as a railroad bridge or a submerged tree branch (a snag).