A-Rafting on the Mississip’

2001
Author:

Charles Edward Russell

An entertaining account of the golden era of lumber rafting, back in print!

During the nineteenth century, pine logs were lashed together to form easily floatable rafts that traveled from Minnesota and Wisconsin down the Mississippi River to build the farms and towns of the virtually treeless lower Midwest. These huge log rafts were steered down the river by steamboat pilots whose skill and intimate knowledge of the river’s many hazards were legendary. Charles Edward Russell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, chronicles the history and river lore of seventy years of lumber rafting.

" A colorful and entertaining account." New York Times Book Review

Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Series

Russell deals with those decades during which the lumber business and the rafting of lumber grew and reached enormous proportions. But his story covers also the splendid phase of the river steamboat. Russell writes with a lively pen, and he has made a colorful and entertaining account.

New York Times Book Review

During the nineteenth century, pine logs were lashed together to form easily floatable rafts that traveled from Minnesota and Wisconsin down the Mississippi River to build the farms and towns of the virtually treeless lower Midwest. These huge log rafts were steered down the river by steamboat pilots whose skill and intimate knowledge of the river’s many hazards were legendary. Charles Edward Russell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, chronicles the history and river lore of seventy years of lumber rafting.

"Russell deals with those decades during which the lumber business and the rafting of lumber grew and reached enormous proportions. But his story covers also the splendid phase of the river steamboat. Russell writes with a lively pen, and he has made a colorful and entertaining account." New York Times Book Review

"Not a dull page in the book. Russell writes frontier history as it should be written." New York Herald Tribune

Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Series

Charles Edward Russell (1860-1941) grew up on the shores of the Mississippi River during the days of lumber rafting. Best known as a journalist during the muckraking era for his exposés on the beef and tobacco trusts, Russell was also a cofounder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Russell deals with those decades during which the lumber business and the rafting of lumber grew and reached enormous proportions. But his story covers also the splendid phase of the river steamboat. Russell writes with a lively pen, and he has made a colorful and entertaining account.

New York Times Book Review

Not a dull page in the book. Russell writes frontier history as it should be written.

New York Herald Tribune

CONTENTS

I THE BAD MEN FROM BLACK RIVER
II HERE COMES THE STEAMBOAT
III THE PINE-TREE ELDORADO
IV THE LUMBERJACK
V CAPTAIN HANKS COMES IN
VI So Loo WAS KINO
VII DAYS OF THE GREAT MIGRATION
VIII THROUGH FIRE, FOG, AND CYCLONE
IX THE SLUSH COOK FINDS A PICTURE
X GOOD BUSINESS ON THE LAMARTINH
XI AFTER TOM DOUGHTY WENT SMASH
XII RAFTSMAN JIM AT His WORST
XIII OTHER PHASES OF RAFTSMAN JIM
XIV CAPTAIN PLUCK TAKES CHARGE
XV THE PILOT AND His WAYS
XVI WHEN THE JULIA. HIT THE BRIDGE
XVII THE STEERING-WHEEL GUILD
XVIII THE MINNIETTA IN A STORM
XIX MR. HILL, MEET CAPTAIN PLUCK
XX THE END FROM THE BEGINNING

APPENDICES

A. UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER DISTANCES
B. A RAFTSMAN'S ORATORY
C. THE RIVER BARD

INDEX