Ripples Through Time: River Travelers Take Us to the Mississippi’s Past and Present

In The Log of the Easy Way, John Mathews wrote about a honeymoon trip he and his wife took in 1900. No, they didn’t relax at an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica; they traveled a couple thousand miles down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers in a homemade shantyboat. 

Their book is just one of many written by people who have taken a long trip on the Mississippi, from Charles Lanman’s trip in 1841 straight to shantyboat travelers like Mathews and on to the present and the many books from long-distance paddlers on the Mississippi. 

In this episode, I offer a few impressions about what these books have to say about the Mississippi, what it was like in the past and what it is today. While river travelers weren’t shy about detailing what they liked and what they didn’t, their stories go far beyond expressing simple preferences.

Stories from people who traveled the Mississippi at different points in time illuminate how we’ve changed the river’s world. Wildlife sightings are less common than they used to be, for one thing. They also highlight the transition from the wonder travelers felt at the river’s natural abundance to the days when we dumped anything and everything into the river to today when water quality is much better. The books document the increasing presence of engineers, especially from the Army Corps of Engineers, along the river, and the coincident decline in communities of people who lived off the river. The accounts of river travelers offer a peek inside those vanished river communities, along with unflinching descriptions of the deeply held prejudices toward African Americans and Native Americans, views that many of the travelers themselves shared. 

Join me in this episode and let’s time travel along the Mississippi River!

In the Mississippi Minute, I suggest a few books from river travelers that I think you’ll enjoy.