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I just read THE MAGNIFICENT MISSISSIPPI, by Jim Arpy.
It was great! Lots of stuff about this area of river. Blackhawk stories were great, Lincoln being sworn in Army at now the intersection of Andalusia & Ridgewood Road. Clark starting first ferry across Mississippi River between Buffalo, Ia. and Andalusia, IL. Asenal and Cloctower stories included...55 stories in all... Monte Hines
ABOUT THE MAGNIFICENT MISSISSIPPI
The farmer who shocked his Illinois neighbors when he sawed the horns off his cattle; the bugging of an Iowa mayor's office; the "man from the moon," who was aboard the first steamboat to voyage all the way up the Mississippi River to Minneapolis.
These are just a few of the more than SS true and wonderful tales of the past recounted in Jim Arpy's newest book, "The Magnificent Mississippi," just released by Iowa Heritage Gallery Publications and Sutherland Printing Co., of Grinnell and Montezuma, Iowa.
Arpy's stories of early life in the Upper Mississippi Valley are not told in the dry manner of the historian. Rather, researched and collected by the longtime newspaper feature writer over more than 30 years, they are vibrant and lively accounts of colorful. often off-beat events that helped shape the future.
He portrays the raw, lanky Abe Lincoln being sworn in as a captain in the Black Hawk War, and catches the frustration and pathos of the Indian war leader for whom that unequal struggle was named.
Through the pages of "The Magnificent Mississippi" march heroes and scoundrels, fur trappers and Indian warriors and orators, future presidents and rugged pioneers, stage coach drivers, burlesque dancers, railroad men and horse thieves. Each in his own way became part of the pattern of a colorful history.
"No portion of the United States is richer in history than the Mississippi Valley. The events that occurred in and around that vast portion of the great river were exciting, and often improbable. The purpose of 'The Magnificent Mississippi' is to make Americans aware of its contributions to our shared heritage," Arpy says.
John M. Zielinski, photographer, and author of five books on Midwest history, has illustrated the new book with more than 108 old, and often quite rare, drawings and photographs, many being published for the first time.
Arpy's tales cover a broad range, from the story of the wily horse thief who wouldn't stay hanged, to the wacky saga of the "kissing bug," whose attack, it was said, could leave a victim with a four-pound lip.
He makes the brawling days of the log raftsmen live again, introducing such unlikely characters as "Two-Headed Bob" and "Whisky Jack."
Readers will meet the ambitious young artist who completed a Mississippi River panorama four miles long; the Army surgeon whose Indian wife inspired Longfellow's famed "Song of Hiawatha," the disgruntled military man who retired to a cave with a pet pig and a dog, and will watch John Brown stocking up for the raid on Harper's Ferry.
There are several delightful and touching legends told by the Indians, and awesome accounts of the untamed Mississippi smashing its fetters with great floods and ice jams.
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