Descriere & specificații

The Mississippi River is said to run fast and deep. This book shares one characteristic, but not the other. It is not a study of steamboats in great depth, from the diameter of smokestacks on each vessel to the maximum pressure tolerated by various boilers. Rather, it is designed to provide an easily accessible overview of steamboats that in one way or another had ties to what is called the Arkansas Delta. Brief commentary about individual boats is included as well as historic context when a noteworthy one exists. Sections include river craft prior to the advent of steamboats, antebellum boats, Civil War vessels, and post-war steamers from 1870 to 1899. The story ends with the century, a somewhat arbitrary conclusion, but railroads and other means of transportation and shipping dominated by then. By 1900, riverboats usually picked up and delivered cargo at towns and commercial centers and not at plantation landings. Most information concerning the 1870s comes from typed pages in several binders compiled by William H. Tippitt and located at the Phillips County Library in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. A former river pilot and newspaper columnist, Tippitt became an informal authority on river matters. He admits in introductory comments from April 1967 that his spelling is "atrocious," and he "abhors" proof reading. These are true. Additionally, attribution sometimes is as muddy as the big river or not included at all. Due to concerns about structure, coherence, and length, mater