Immortal River

Immortal River
Author: Calvin R. Fremling
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2004-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780299202941

This engaging and well-illustrated primer to the Upper Mississippi River presents the basic natural and human history of this magnificent waterway. Immortal River is written for the educated lay-person who would like to know more about the river's history and the forces that shape as well as threaten it today. It melds complex information from the fields of geology, ecology, geography, anthropology, and history into a readable, chronological story that spans some 500 million years of the earth's history. Like the Mississippi itself, Immortal River often leaves the main channel to explore the river's backwaters, floodplain, and drainage basin. The book's focus is the Upper Mississippi, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Cairo, Illinois. But it also includes information about the river's headwaters in northern Minnesota and about the Lower Mississippi from Cairo south to the river's mouth ninety miles below New Orleans. It offers an understanding of the basic geology underlying the river's landscapes, ecology, environmental problems, and grandeur.

Old Times on the Upper Mississippi

Old Times on the Upper Mississippi
Author: George Byron Merrick
Publisher: Cleveland, O. : A.H. Clark Company, 1909 [c1908]
Total Pages: 346
Release: 1909
Genre: Frontier and pioneer life
ISBN:

Originally published: [Cleveland, OH]: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1909.

Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865

Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865
Author: Christopher P. Lehman
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786485892

Although the passing of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 banned African American slavery in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, making the new territory officially "free," slavery in fact persisted in the region through the end of the Civil War. Slaves accompanied presidential appointees serving as soldiers or federal officials in the Upper Mississippi, worked in federally supported mines, and openly accompanied southern travelers. Entrepreneurs from the East Coast started pro-slavery riverfront communities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota to woo vacationing slaveholders. Midwestern slaves joined their southern counterparts in suffering family separations, beatings, auctions, and other indignities that accompanied status as chattel. This revealing work explores all facets of the "peculiar institution" in this peculiar location and its impact on the social and political development of the United States.

Old Times on the Upper Mississippi

Old Times on the Upper Mississippi
Author: George Byron Merrick
Publisher: DigiCat
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2022-05-28
Genre: Travel
ISBN:

This book written by George Byron Merrick is an excellent treatise on Mississippi River steam boating. This work gives a first-hand account of life on the Upper Mississippi particularly the steamboat trade.

Old Man River

Old Man River
Author: Paul Schneider
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2013-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0805098364

A fascinating account of how the Mississippi River shaped America In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America's rich history—the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent's interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln's attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi. In the 19th century, home-grown folk heroes such as Daniel Boone and the half-alligator, half-horse, Mike Fink, were creatures of the river. Mark Twain and Herman Melville led their characters down its stream in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Confidence-Man. A conduit of real-life American prowess, the Mississippi is also a river of stories and myth. Schneider traces the history of the Mississippi from its origins in the deep geologic past to the present. Though the busiest waterway on the planet today, the Mississippi remains a paradox—a devastated product of American ingenuity, and a magnificent natural wonder.

Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men

Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men
Author: Thomas Ruys Smith
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2010-05
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 0807137367

In Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men, Thomas Ruys Smith collects nineteenth-century stories, sketches, and book excerpts by a gallery of authors to create a comprehensive collection of writings about the riverboat gambler. The voices of canonized writers such as William Dean Howells, Herman Melville, and, inevitably, Mark Twain hold prominent positions. But they mingle seamlessly with lesser-known pieces such as an excerpt from Edward Willett's sensationalistic dime novel Flush Fred's Full Hand, raucous sketches by anonymous Old Southwestern humorists from The Spirit of the Times, and colorful accounts by now nearly forgotten authors like Daniel R. Hundley and George W. Featherstonhaugh. Smith puts the twenty-eight selections in perspective with an Introduction that for the first time thoroughly explores the history and myth surrounding this endlessly fascinating American cultural icon.

The Last River Rat

The Last River Rat
Author: Kenny Salwey
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2017-10-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1938486919

Kenny Salwey is a modern-day American hermit who has lived most of his life in the Mississippi river bottoms, coming to know the river ecosystem with an intimacy unavailable to most. Now, Kenny shares his love of, and knowledge about, the mighty river. The Last River Rat is a seasonal look at Kenny's unique life.

River of History

River of History
Author: John O. Anfinson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2003
Genre: Formations (Geology)
ISBN: