This Storied River: Legend & Lore of the Upper Mississippi

by Dennis McCann

In This Storied River, longtime journalist Dennis McCann takes us on an intimate tour of the Upper Mississippi—from Dubuque, Iowa, to the Minnesota headwaters, and dozens of places in between. Far more than a travel guide, This Storied River celebrates the Upper Mississippi’s colorful history and the unique role the river has played in shaping the Midwest.

Genres: Nature, History

200 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Jim Gallen]

The people who live along and, on its waters, determine a river’s history. “This Storied River” is a collection of accounts of people who created the legends and lore of the Upper Mississippi. A travel journalist by trade, author Dennis McCann has drawn on his career of exploration of the Upper Mississippi to craft twenty-four chapters that tell the stories of mysterious Indian mounds, explorers, excursions, industrial cities, mines, fisheries and an eclectic assembly of characters. Each chapter concludes with Places of Interest related to its topic.

I will just summarize a couple of the topics to provide a sample of the treats awaiting readers of this book. Did you ever think of Mississippi mussels as the source as the source of a booming button industry? Read about J. F. Boepple, a German immigrant who found abundant clam beds near Muscatine, Iowa. By 1891 he had attracted enough investors to establish the first freshwater pearl button factory at Muscatine. New machines were designed to convert clamshells into buttons and soon Muscatine was known as the Pearl Button Capital of the World, with 2,500 people employed in more that forty button-related businesses. The industry spread to over a dozen riverside communities so that by 1898 over a thousand were making their living off mussel fishing, to say nothing of those employed in the factories. The enterprises continued to prosper until the 1920 when plastic buttons provided a cheaper alternative but the button industry would continue with the new material of choice.

To many the Upper Midwest has always been a land of peaceful industry and agriculture but readers of this tome will know better. In the summer of 1832 the last Indian war in Wisconsin ended with the defeat of Black Hawk and his warriors where the Bad Axe River empties into the Mississippi. The respected warrior Black Hawk who led his followers eastward across the Mississippi toward their traditional homelands in 1832. Caught between American militia and a gunboat at the mouth of the Bad Axe River, Black Hawk’s attempts to surrender were ignored until more than 150 Sauk warriors had been killed along with many women and children. It was the end of Indian resistance but made Black Hawk a sympathetic figure who was taken on a tour of the eastern United States during which he met Andrew Jackson before settling in his new home in Iowa where he died in 1838.

This work is a collection of tales woven together by the Upper Mississippi. With between six and ten pages they make for an easy, quick read that is entertaining, informative and provide travel tips for readers visiting in the area. Each chapter has a map to situate its action. Black and white historic and modern pictures supplement the text. This Storied River is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the legends of the mighty river of the Upper Midwest.

I did receive a free copy of this book without the obligation to post a review.

[Dave Courtney]

Part history, part memoir, part travelogue, The Storied River is a personalized love letter to the infamous river from the perspective of a traveler.

I have long had a fascination with the river, a number of years back doing my own trip down the Great River Road. I started at Minneapolis and made it to Memphis, leaving both the headwaters and the mouth for a future endeavor. This past summer I planned a trip to Duluth and finally checked off the section between Minneapolis and the headwaters. I came across this title at a local bookstore and felt it would be a good compliment to this part of the journey, given that it begins in Dubuque and works its way up to the headwaters, with each chapter focusing on a specific town along the way,

Chapters are brief, and each one ends with a summarized list of travel stops and relevant things to do/see. As a resource this makes it extremely helpful and accessible. The content then dives into the relevance of that town and its history, connecting the past to the present in a way that allows us to see the place that we would be visiting now in the light of the town that once emerged in the rivers hey day. I love this sort of stuff, and unlike other books on the rivers history this finds a way to really help give life to an actual road trip. The personal element helps to sell it as a storied road colored with many different stories, all worth knowing and experiencing, being it through the present iteration of these places or through our imaginations of what it once was before the river was tamed. You can travel through where water-skiing was invented, walk through the history of boot making, climb bluffs and observe the mounds, admire some of the innovation of old world River tourism that still stands today, jaunt through the sometimes serious often humorous stories of namesakes, learn about different heritages and nationalities, confront and celebrate the indigenous peoples and the tragic past, relive the mighty steamboats, and watch the formation of a national park inspired by the fervent search for the headwaters.

Definitely a keeper to add to my permanent shelf.