Rivers of History
316 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Paperback
Release Date:30 Jul 1995
ISBN:9780817307714
Rivers of History
Life on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Cahaba, and Alabama
University of Alabama Press
The story of the people of the Alabama River system
Four streams make up the Alabama River system, the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Cahaba, and Alabama. Together they flow for more than 900 miles, through some of the most historic regions of the state. This book looks at the way these streams have shaped the lives of the people who lived along them, and how, in turn, people have used the rivers to their own ends.
This is the story of the people of the Alabama River system: the Indians, traders, steamboatmen, passengers, slaves, loggers, "deadheaders", divers, river rats, fishermen, industrial giants, factory workers, business boosters, environmentalists, and those who simply love the rivers because of something that seems to have been a part of them from the first time they saw the water flowing. This is a book for and about these people. They, and the rivers, are the main characters in the story.
Four streams make up the Alabama River system, the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Cahaba, and Alabama. Together they flow for more than 900 miles, through some of the most historic regions of the state. This book looks at the way these streams have shaped the lives of the people who lived along them, and how, in turn, people have used the rivers to their own ends.
This is the story of the people of the Alabama River system: the Indians, traders, steamboatmen, passengers, slaves, loggers, "deadheaders", divers, river rats, fishermen, industrial giants, factory workers, business boosters, environmentalists, and those who simply love the rivers because of something that seems to have been a part of them from the first time they saw the water flowing. This is a book for and about these people. They, and the rivers, are the main characters in the story.
From introduction to epilogue, Jackson weaves a fascinating story from an amazing variety of sources: primary, secondary, oral histories, and personal observations. The book is entertaining, informative, poignant, and finally, to me, profoundly sad. The fact that the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Alabama now are ‘elongated lakes’ with little if any of a once-abundant biota should be a constant reminder to us all of the price we have paid for ‘civilization.’ Rivers that had existed for some 15,000 years have been harnessed and befouled in less than one century. Jackson's book chronicles this process for the Alabama River system.’
—Douglas E. Jones, Director, Alabama Museum of Natural History
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