|
Mississippi Madness: Canoeing the Mississippi-MissouriOxford Illustrated Press and Sheradin House, New York, 1990Nicholas Francis and William Butcher |
|
This first
book ever written about the Mississippi-Missouri recounts an attempt to
canoe from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico, via Mark Twain's
'crookedest
river in the world'. It is a lyrical account of the very soul of America, its blues and jazz, its lografts and steamboats, its Indians, Midwesterners, and Cajuns, its cottonmouths, its white water and stagnant bayous - from the unprecedented viewpoint of a 1.5 foot wide boat. The thirteen states, 3810 miles, and four months brought much mud and misery: a bloody rescue when the canoe capsized on rapids and Bill had to dive in headfirst to save Nick; isolated and desolate Fort Peck Reservoir where got lost and spent 2 days rowing without food before being rescued by Bill with a hired aircraft; a tornado which carried the 17-foot canoe off; groups of 60,000-ton towboats and towering 20-knot liners; and the disappearance of the canoe down a 40-foot whirlpool. The Guinness Book of Records registers this first canoe descent of the Mississippi-Missouri. Other records include first navigation of this river; and longest solo canoe trip on any river of the globe.
|
Reviews:
|