The Mississippi River

Author : James L. Shaffer,John T. Tigges
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : History
ISBN : 0738507458

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The Mississippi River by James L. Shaffer,John T. Tigges Pdf

Named by Algonkian-speaking Indians, Mississippi can be translated as "Father of Waters." The river, the largest in North America, drains 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces, and runs 2,350 miles from its source to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River is truly one of the great forces that has shaped the United States into the country it is today. Although its role has changed over the past few centuries, the Mississippi has always been important to those who lived along its banks. Indigenous peoples fished its waters and depended on the waterway for transportation. Explorers and traders traveled the river in hopes of conquering more land and obtaining wealth for their countries. Settlers moved close to take advantage of the rich farmland the river provided. All of these pursuits resulted in a trade industry that brought about a social and economic transformation, when news and goods made their way downriver and livelihoods were provided. In fact, the Mississippi River's economic and strategic value was so important that when Ulysses S. Grant won the siege of Vicksburg and control of the river during the Civil War, the Confederacy was dealt a serious blow. Today, although still used to transport goods, the river has taken on yet another identity: that of entertainer. Literature, pleasure boats, and floating casinos all showcase a new dimension of this magnificent river.

Author : Lee Sandlin
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2010-10-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9780307379511

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Wicked River by Lee Sandlin Pdf

A riveting narrative look at one of the most colorful, dangerous, and peculiar places in America's historical landscape: the strange, wonderful, and mysterious Mississippi River of the 19th century. Beginning in the early 1800s and climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg in 1863, Wicked River brings to life a place where river pirates brushed elbows with future presidents and religious visionaries shared passage with thieves. Here is a minute-by-minute account of Natchez being flattened by a tornado; the St. Louis harbor being crushed by a massive ice floe; hidden, nefarious celebrations of Mardi Gras; and the sinking of the Sultana, the worst naval disaster in American history. Here, too, is the Mississippi itself: gorgeous, perilous, and unpredictable. Masterfully told, Wicked River is an exuberant work of Americana that portrays a forgotten society on the edge of revolutionary change.

Author : Dean Klinkenberg
Publisher : Dean Klinkenberg
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Mississippi River
ISBN : 0971690448

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Lansing to LeClaire Travel Guide by Dean Klinkenberg Pdf

Author : Christine A Klein,Sandra B Zellmer
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2017-08-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781479856169

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Mississippi River Tragedies by Christine A Klein,Sandra B Zellmer Pdf

Read a free excerpt here! American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over a thousand miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called “natural disasters” continue to strike the Mississippi basin, as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, only the tombstones remain, leaning at odd angles as the underlying soil erodes away. Mississippi River Tragedies reveals that it is seductively deceptive—but horribly misleading—to call such catastrophes “natural.” Authors Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer present a sympathetic account of the human dreams, pride, and foibles that got us to this point, weaving together engaging historical narratives and accessible law stories drawn from actual courtroom dramas. The authors deftly uncover the larger story of how the law reflects and even amplifies our ambivalent attitude toward nature—simultaneously revering wild rivers and places for what they are, while working feverishly to change them into something else. Despite their sobering revelations, the authors’ final message is one of hope. Although the acknowledgement of human responsibility for unnatural disasters can lead to blame, guilt, and liability, it can also prod us to confront the consequences of our actions, leading to a liberating sense of possibility and to the knowledge necessary to avoid future disasters.

Author : Dorothy Zeisler-Vralsted
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 203 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2014-11-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781782384328

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Rivers, Memory, And Nation-building by Dorothy Zeisler-Vralsted Pdf

Rivers figure prominently in a nation’s historical memory, and the Volga and Mississippi have special importance in Russian and American cultures. Beginning in the pre-modern world, both rivers served as critical trade routes connecting cultures in an extensive exchange network, while also sustaining populations through their surrounding wetlands and bottomlands. In modern times, “Mother Volga” and the “Father of Waters” became integral parts of national identity, contributing to a sense of Russian and American exceptionalism. Furthermore, both rivers were drafted into service as the means to modernize the nation-state through hydropower and navigation. Despite being forced into submission for modern-day hydrological regimes, the Volga and Mississippi Rivers persist in the collective memory and continue to offer solace, recreation, and sustenance. Through their histories we derive a more nuanced view of human interaction with the environment, which adds another lens to our understanding of the past.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 92 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 1951
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 0395273994

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Minn of the Mississippi by Anonim Pdf

Follows the adventures of Minn, a three-legged snapping turtle, as she slowly makes her way from her birthplace at the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the mouth of river on the Gulf of Mexico.

Author : Paul Schneider
Publisher : Henry Holt and Company
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2013-09-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780805098365

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Old Man River by Paul Schneider Pdf

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.

Author : National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Water Science and Technology Board,Committee on the Mississippi River and the Clean Water Act
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2008-02-08
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780309177818

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Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act by National Research Council,Division on Earth and Life Studies,Water Science and Technology Board,Committee on the Mississippi River and the Clean Water Act Pdf

The Mississippi River is, in many ways, the nation's best known and most important river system. Mississippi River water quality is of paramount importance for sustaining the many uses of the river including drinking water, recreational and commercial activities, and support for the river's ecosystems and the environmental goods and services they provide. The Clean Water Act, passed by Congress in 1972, is the cornerstone of surface water quality protection in the United States, employing regulatory and nonregulatory measures designed to reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways. The Clean Water Act has reduced much pollution in the Mississippi River from "point sources" such as industries and water treatment plants, but problems stemming from urban runoff, agriculture, and other "non-point sources" have proven more difficult to address. This book concludes that too little coordination among the 10 states along the river has left the Mississippi River an "orphan" from a water quality monitoring and assessment perspective. Stronger leadership from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is needed to address these problems. Specifically, the EPA should establish a water quality data-sharing system for the length of the river, and work with the states to establish and achieve water quality standards. The Mississippi River corridor states also should be more proactive and cooperative in their water quality programs. For this effort, the EPA and the Mississippi River states should draw upon the lengthy experience of federal-interstate cooperation in managing water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.

Author : Eddy Harris
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 1998-09-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0805059032

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Mississippi Solo by Eddy Harris Pdf

The true story of a young black man's quest: to canoe the length of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to New Orleans.

Author : Curtis C. & Elizabeth M. Roseman & Roseman
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2009-09-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781587294853

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Grand Excursions on the Upper Mississippi River by Curtis C. & Elizabeth M. Roseman & Roseman Pdf

In June 1854 the Grand Excursion celebrated in festive style the completion of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad to the Mississippi River. Hundreds of dignitaries including newspaper editors and other journalists; politicians; academics, writers and artists; business and industry leaders; and railroad officials were among those who traveled by rail from Chicago to Rock Island, Illinois, then by steamboat to St. Paul in Minnesota Territory. The travelers were shown a region undergoing rapid settlement by Europeans—an area of great natural beauty offering many promises for additional development. One hundred and fifty years later, the thirteen essays in this volume examine the activities and environments of the 1854 Grand Excursion and place them in the context of an evolving regional identity for the Upper Mississippi River Valley based on the economy, culture, geography, and history of the area. In a series of “excursions,” the contributors explore the building of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, eastern newspaper accounts of the 1854 excursion, steamboating, the area’s pictorial landscape, passenger trains along the scenic river, the genesis and features of river towns, the control of the river for navigation, the development of preserves, parks, and recreation areas, the lumber industry, and commercial fishing. The book concludes by examining the resurgence of river-oriented development, as river towns are once again embracing the Mississippi. Generously illustrated with maps, engravings, ephemera, and historic and present-day photographs, Grand Excursions on the Upper Mississippi River will be of interest to tourists and residents of the area, river aficionados, railroad and steamboat history buffs, as well as academics interested in the history, geography, and regional development of the area.

Author : United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Rock Island District
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Mississippi River
ISBN : UCR:31210023574021

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Upper Mississippi River Navigation Charts by United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Rock Island District Pdf

Author : Katie Marsico
Publisher : Cherry Lake Publishing
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2013-01-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 1624310117

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The Mississippi River by Katie Marsico Pdf

A tour of the Mississippi River and its surrounding area.

Author : Alan Brown
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2011-09-01
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9781617031458

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Ghosts along the Mississippi River by Alan Brown Pdf

Some of the nation’s most compelling ghost stories owe their origin to “The Father of Waters.” Ghosts along the Mississippi River is the first book-length collection of ghost tales from the small towns and bustling cities that have grown up along its banks. The states represented in this book include Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Unlike most collections of “true” ghost stories, Ghosts along the Mississippi River draws from the folk traditions of the northern and the southern United States. These tales are populated with Federal and Confederate soldiers, Native Indians, wealthy entrepreneurs, actors, college students, hotel owners, preachers, slaves, and planters. According to some paranormal investigators, the large number of ghost stories from the Mississippi’s river towns, and from watery sites all over the world, are proof that large bodies of water are conductors of psychic energy. Granted, no concrete proof exists that there is a definite connection between the river and any actual ghosts or spiritual phenomena. What is indisputable, though, is the fact that the ghost stories included in Ghosts along the Mississippi River are an invaluable record of the values, dreams, fears, and lives of the people who have called the river home.

Author : Calvin R. Fremling
Publisher : Univ of Wisconsin Press
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2004-12-31
Category : History
ISBN : 0299202941

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Immortal River by Calvin R. Fremling Pdf

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.

Author : Captain Art Wilson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2018-01-10
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1543474500

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Bust on the Mississippi by Captain Art Wilson Pdf

1. When you mix sex, drugs, and alcohol with fast boats...you've got trouble! 2. Heading south on the Mississippi by boat? Here' your new River Guide! 3. Is this possible?