The Hudson was built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1820s to 1830 by an unknown builder. She operated in the upper Mississippi River trade in the 1830s and had brought supplies to Fort Snelling in 1830.
The steamer Hudson was reported to be stranded by ice and later crushed one mile below Guttenberg, Iowa in 1841, long before the town was populated. The Hudson's machinery was rammed and her wreck formed a bar. The remains were still there in 1916.