Known for its Southern charm and burgeoning music scene, Mississippi is a beautiful state. Also known as “The Magnolia State” and “The Hospitality State,” it offers some of the most beautiful sights and places to visit. While traveling around, visitors can come across a variety of sights, from verdant forests to beautiful … Read more
ITASCA Built:1857, Cincinnati, Ohio. Type:Sidewheel, wooden hull packet. Size: 230′ x 35′ x 5′ 6″, 340 tons. Engines: 20’s x 7 ft. Boilers:Four boilers. Paddlewheels:28 ft. diameter with 10 ft. buckets. The ITASCA ran in the Upper Mississippi trade between St. Louis and St. Paul, and was operated by the Northwestern Union Packet Company from 1864. She … Read more
The war between the States began on April 12, 1861, at Charleston, South Carolina. Within weeks, civilian river traffic on the Mississippi River had been suspended. The steamboat UNCLE SAM was the last steamboat to make the run up to St. Louis before the Union blockade took full effect. It was fired upon, stopped, … Read more
Log Raft on the Mississippi In the 1800s large rafts of logs and sawn lumber were floated down the Mississippi River from the pine forests in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The earliest lumbering was probably on the Wisconsin River, where Pierre Grignon had a sawmill operating in 1822. Log rafts and sawn lumber rafts … Read more
Grant resolved to move his soldiers south of Vicksburg down the Louisiana side of the river, cross the Mississippi, and attack Vicksburg from the south. Although this meant the Union fleet would risk passing downstream beneath Vicksburg’s Mississippi River batteries to get in position south of the city to ferry the army across … Read more
Broadhorn or Kentucky Boat on Ohio ~ circa 1788 In May, 1782, Pennsylvania farmer, Jacob Yoder, became the first person to successfully navigate a flatboat from Brownsville to New Orleans, delivering flour, and effectively demonstrating how the waterways could be used to reach distant markets and to settle the West. Flatboats or Flats were … Read more