This book tells the story of river boating in the West before the invention of the steamboat. In a deft combination of thorough research and interesting narrative, Baldwin recreates life on the keelboats and flatboats that plied the Ohio, Mississippi, and other rivers from revolutionary days until about 1820. No one knows who put the first keel along the bottom of one big, clumsy river craft used by the pioneers. but the change made the boats far easier to manage, and travel in both directions became practical all the way to New Orleans.Baldwin examines the many types of craft in use, the different methods of locomotion, and the art of navigation on uncharted rivers full of hidden obstacles. But he never loses sight of the picturesque aspects of his subject, especially the boatmen themselves-a tribe of rugged and fearless men whose colorful lives are described in great detail.The Keelboat Age is a segment cut from the history of the frontier, showing the overwhelming importance of river transportation in the development of the West. The rivers were great arteries, carrying a restless people into a new land. The keelboatman and his craft did much to build a nation.

A succinct account of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 in Western Pennsylvania.

This book tells the story of river boating in the west before the invention of the steamboat. Recreates life on the keelboats and flatboats that ran the Ohio, Mississippi, and other rivers from revolutionary days until about 1820.

Richly detailed definitive account covers every aspect of steamboat's development — from construction, equipment, and operation to races, collisions, rise of competition, and ultimate decline of steamboat transportation.

Part of a series of detailed reference manuals on American economic history, this volume traces the development of agriculture, transportation, labour movements and the factory system, foreign and domestic commerce, technology and the ramifications of slavery.

Given in honor of Royce Hickman by the Aggieland Rotary Club of Bryan-College Station.

Part of a series of detailed reference manuals on American economic history, this volume traces the development and rapid growth of transportation across the USA in the mid-1800s.