River of Conflict, River of Dreams: Three Hundred Years on the Upper Mississippi

by Biloine Whiting Young

A richly detailed history of the early Upper Mississippi as the major highway into America's Midwest frontier for Native Americans and for pioneers. Birchbark canoes, romantic passenger steamboats, log rafts, and grain barges all traveled Mark Twain's river. The commercial life of the Mississippi ended with the coming of the railroad. Dams and locks then constricted the river, bringing floods and dumping refuse and sewage into the water. Ignored and abused, the river was disregarded by communities for over a century. Today the Mississippi River is in the midst of a renaissance. Now, with the water clean enough to swim in, environmentalists and developers use the river thoughtfully. No longer shunning this water lifeline, communities are returning to its banks for housing, recreation and pleasure.

Genres: History

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this represents an excellent overview of the history of the Mississippi River and contains easily understood, concise versions of events I'm interested in, its level of detail is a bit light for how deep into the game I'm getting, and I take issue with a few details (minor to Young perhaps, who's taking the long and holistic view, but significant for my purposes) that I've seen contradictory information on elsewhere.

I did however find it very useful for more context on places and events tangential to my primary interests, like the histories of St. Louis as a port, Davenport and Galena as lead towns, and Pairie du Chien / Fort Crawford as the nearest civilization to Fort Snelling, the wheeling and dealing done by Sibley and Steele, and the self serving motivations and obscure prejudices dictating the otherwise arbitrary-seeming lines of Maj. Plympton's Military Reserve boundary maps.

I would recommend this as an introduction to the Upper Mississippi, perhaps for reading assignments in an undergraduate seminar on the topic, but not as a thorough research resource.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent local history and chronicle of poor management of natural resources.