The Keelboat Age on Western Waters

by Leland Dewitt Baldwin, Harvey B. Cushman (Illustrator)

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 on Western Waters  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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

Reviews

[Thom DeLair]

I didn't know much about the keelboat scene at the turn of the 18th to 19th centuries until reading this book. I didn't find the book terribly interesting but it did inform me about the economics and transportation of the Mississippi and Ohio Valley regions and their brief period of keel boating. Interesting fact, the Ohio River is not a great means of transporting goods long distances due to the many falls and shallow waters along the way.

If you're into swivel guns mounted on keel boats, there's plenty of references to it in the book.