Voices on the River - The Story of the Mississippi Waterways

Voices on the River relates two centuries of tales of famous steamboats and of the men who piloted them, from the renowned Mark Twain to the trailblazing Captain Henry Shreve. The book portrays roustabouts on the main deck, passengers in plush cabins, pilots at the big steering wheel, and government engineers at work in shifting channels. It shows Native American tribes carried to exile; soldiers transported to army posts; artists, scientists, and adventures on their way to wild country; immigrants thronging river landings where the inland cities rose. Voices on the River follows the frontier commerce up the Mississippi River and its two major tributaries, the Ohio and the Missouri. It tells of steamboat speed records, races, and disasters, and of the growing nation in the vast Midwest. This book gathers memories of a wide variety of Misissippi characters to provide an engrossing portrait of the expanse of river life. "A big book, well balanced in facts and colorful stories."

About the author

A longtime professor of English at Miami University, Walter Havighurst (1901–1994) grew up in Wisconsin and was a prolific and passionate writer of regional history and fiction. He is the author of The Long Ships Passing, available from the University of Minnesota Press (2002).

Product details

• Authors: Walter Havighurst, HAVIGHURST WALTER
• Publisher: University Of Minnesota Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.02.2003
• EAN: 9780816641772
• ISBN: 978-0-8166-4177-2
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 235 mm x 19 mm
• Series: Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Herit; Fesler-Lampert Minnesota heritage book series; Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage; Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage; Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Herit; A Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Regional and national histories