On the Storied Ohio (The Mid-American Frontier)

Reuben Gold Thwaites, historian extraordinaire and superintendent of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (1887-1913), A new and revised edition of “Afloat On The Ohio”, “On the Storied Ohio" tells the story of an historical pilgrimage of a thousand miles in a skiff, from Redstone To Cairo made in 1894. Present on this pilgrimage were a company of four, the author, his wife, their ten-year-old son and a Doctor. Thwaites, historian extraordinaire, wanted to understand the great waterway in its various phases and to relive the pioneer experience, and thus set off on this 1100-mile trip from Brownsville and down to the Father of Waters. Though taking one of the many steamer ships on the river could have made the trip faster, the group was more interested in seeing the river from a closer perspective. The book is a log of their journey, the curious people they met with various dialects, and surrounding scenery, while at the same time images of the historical aspects of the life along the river including the fur-traders, Iroquois war parties, explorers and frontiersmen can be imagined. It details their charming gypsy life, on shore and river, away from the workaday world so far away and simply glad to be alive.