Publications of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume 1) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV COMMERCE OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI Wisconsin possessed unusual natural advantages for the conduct of a profitable inland commerce. On three sides her shores were washed by the greatest inland watercourses on the North American continent. On her western border flowed the Mississippi River, pouring into her lap the products of Minnesota and northern Iowa and affording the products of her own western counties an exit to market; on her eastern boundary the broad waters of Lake Michigan offered her easy access to the sea; on her northern shore rolled Lake Superior, the largest of all the northern chain of fresh-water lakes. These magnificent highways supported an internal commerce, unparalleled in all the rest of the world, and to it Wisconsin contributed an important part. The conditions of navigation on the Mississippi River differed widely from those on the Great Lakes.1 The upper Mississippi in frequent stretches is but 1 No adequate study has yet been made of the steamboat commerce of the Mississippi River. The best works thus far published are biographical in nature, those of George B. Merrick, a former river pilot, being especially useful. See G. B. Merrick, Old Times on the Upper Mississippi (Cleveland, 1909), "Western River Steamboating," in Wis. Hist. Soc., Proc., 1911, 97-148; and "Joseph Reynolds and the Diamond Jo Line Steamers, 18621911," in Mississippi Valley Historical Association, Proceedings, 1915, 217-61; George Gale, Upper Mississippi (Chicago, 1867), 388-414; E. W. Gould, Fifty Years on the Mississippi (St. Louis, 1889); S. L. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi (New York, n. d.). For the best contemporary source see the annual reviews of steamboat trade on the upper river printed at or near the close of each shipping season in the...