Introduction: Sickness and Death -- The Ground Rolled Like Waves: The New Madrid Earthquakes -- Deadly Winds: Tornadoes -- Water from Bluff to Bluff: The Flood of 1844 -- The Unappeasable God: The Flood of 1927 -- The Ducks Came and Men Died: The Armistice Day Blizzard -- The Worst-Case Scenario: The Flood of 1965 -- The River Kept Rising -- Uncomfortably Fragile: Snags and Sinking Steamboats -- Burned to the Water's Edge: Steamboat Fires -- Primed to Blow: Boiler Explosions -- Going Home: The Sultana -- Let Us All Die Together: The Monmouth -- Shattered Reminders of Our Weakness: The Sea Wing -- Sporting Girls: Brothels on the River -- The River Never Ran Dry: Moonshiners -- In the Mississippi River: A Double Murder -- Hot Coals Rained Down from the Sky: The St. Louis Fire of 1849 -- When the Walls Caved In: The Milford Mine Disaster -- Tragedy at Rush Hour: The I-35W Bridge Collapse -- Death Is Wielding His Scythe: The Cholera Pandemic -- Tormenting Insects: Mosquito-Borne Diseases -- Someone to Blame: Drownings.
Summary:
"In this book, author and Mississippi River historian Dean Klinkenberg explores the many disastrous events to have occurred on and along the river in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-from steamboat explosions, to Yellow Fever epidemics, floods, and Prohibition piracy. Enjoy this journey into the darkest deeds of the Mississippi River"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.