NCW Libraries

Offers a history of the river, describes Twain's experiences as a riverboat pilot, and shares tall tales, character sketches, and observations about the Mississippi.

"The eagerly awaited return of master American storyteller Rinker Buck, Life on the Mississippi is an epic, enchanting blend of history and adventure in which Buck builds a wooden flatboat from the grand 'flatboat era' of the 1800s and sails it down the Mississippi River, illuminating the forgotten past of America’s first western frontier. Seven years ago, readers around the country fell in love with a singular American voice: Rinker Buck,...

A chronicle of the Mississippi River in the first half of the nineteenth century--before it was tamed by commerce and technology--draws on first-hand accounts to describe life along the river, natural and man-made disasters, acts of piracy, and cultural celebrations.

In 1932, Minnesota's Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O'Banion, a lively boy whose exploits upset the superintendent. Forced to flee, Odie and his brother Albert, their bestfriend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy, steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi. During one unforgettable summer,...

In 1927, the Mississippi River swept across an area roughly equal in size to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, leaving water as deep as thirty feet on the land stretching from Illinois and Missouri south to the Gulf of Mexico. Close to a million people - in a nation of 120 million - were forced out of their homes. Some estimates place the death toll in the thousands. The Red Cross fed nearly 700,000 refugees for months....

Retells the classic story of the adventures of a mischievous boy growing up in a Mississippi River town in the early nineteenth century.

Profiles the explorer who, upon hearing rumors of the Mississippi River, determined first to find it, then to claim it for France and establish French settlements from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

"The date is April 27, 1865. You are crammed onboard the steamboat Sultana with more than 2,000 passengers. Many of them are soldiers heading home after the Civil War. You're cruising on the Mississippi River when a massive explosion rips through the ship. Do you dive into the water to save yourself or stay onboard to help the survivors? Will you try to swim for shore or wait for help to arrive? Will you stay with your sick friend or try to find someone...

In 1976, America's bicentennial, 24 young men set out to re-create French explorer La Salle's voyage down the entire length of the Mississippi River, abandoning their modern identities in order to live like the voyageurs of the 1600s.

1932, Minnesota. The Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O'Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent's wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call...