Gus Kasper first began researching the history of steamboats on Virginia’s Mattaponi River in 2016. His interest in the subject led him to write his undergraduate thesis on how the invention of the automobile and the Good Roads Movement led to the decline of Walkerton, a once thriving port town on the Mattaponi. Kasper went on to serve as Executive Director of the Steamboat Era Museum from 2023 to 2025 where he began writing his first book, Steamboats on the York River and Her Tributaries.