Wisconsin Stories: River & Roads

Books

Jonathan Carver, Travels in Wisconsin. New York: Harper & Bros., 1838. Expeditions of 1767 and 1768.

George Featherstonehaugh, Up the Minnesota. 2 vols. Reprinted by Minnesota Historical Society Press. Featherstonehaugh's journals describe his travel on the Mississippi in the 1830s and 1840s.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Expedition to Lake Itasca: the Discovery of the Source of the Mississippi. Ann Arbor: Michigan State University Press, 1958.

Stephen Harriman Long, The Northern Expeditions of Stephen H. Long. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1978. Journals of Long's expeditions up the River in 1817.

Bruce E. Mahan, Old Fort Crawford and the Frontier. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1926. Prarie du Chien: Prarie du Chien Historical Society, 2000. It is a very readable social history of military activities on the Upper Mississippi from the early to mid 1800s.

Raymond Merrit, The Corps, the Environment, and the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Washington D.C.: Office of Administrative Services, Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1984. An excellent history of the Upper Mississippi River as told by the Army Corps of Engineers.

William J. Peterson, Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi River. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1968. "Steamboat Bill" Peterson was a great Iowa historian who edited a number of Iowa historical magazines and books. His great passion for the river is evident in everything he wrote. This book is a wonderfully readable account.

The Journals of Zebulon Pike: With Letters and Related Documents. 2 vols. American Biography Series. Nineola, NY: Dover Publications. Details of the 1805 Corp of Discovery expedition to determine the headwaters of the Mississippi. A failed expedition but a very good read.