Includes Index and Bibliography

1. [pt.] 1.
Prologue : blow for a landmark -- 2.
Mississippi sunrise -- 3.
Great river -- 4.
All the way to Shawneetown -- [pt. 2].
Six men and an earthquake -- 5.
Two thousand packets -- 6.
Smoke on the rivers -- 7.
Captain shreve was there -- 8.
Travelers' tales -- 9.
River song -- 10.
Voyage to exile -- 11.
Horizon north -- 12.
The way to the future city -- 13.
"Cotton pile!" -- 14.
Jim Bludso's ghost -- [pt. 3].
Mark Twain, pilot -- 15.
The chained river -- 16.
The fleet at Pittsburg Landing -- 17.
Eads's ironclads -- [pt. 4].
Guns at Vicksburg -- 18.
Indian summer -- 19.
The splendid packets -- 20.
The mountain trip -- 21.
Raftsman Jim -- [pt. 5].
A century of showboats -- 22.
Towboat river -- 23.
Dayboards, buoys and beacons -- 24.
The new waterway --
Down to New Orleans --
Acknowledgments --
Bibliography --
Index.

More than a river, the Mississippi is a system of waterways reaching from the Appalacian highlands to the Rocky Mountains and draining half of the continental United States. Once a river of legend, the Mississippi has become a highway through the heart of America. For three centuries sounds of travel have echoed along its shore, from Indian canoes to the barge fleets that now dwarf the vanished steamboat traffic.