Which admittedly could have inspired the stories he sang about, but even so there were no paddlewheel steamships in that river when he was there. If there was

Which admittedly could have inspired the stories he sang about, but even so there were no paddlewheel steamships in that river when he was there. If there was a "river culture" he didn't give us a clear accounting of it. Maybe it was a metaphor for more landlocked counterculture society at the time?