History Of Early Steamboat Navigation On The Missouri River. Life And Adventures Of Joseph La Barge, Pioneer Navigator And Indian Trader For Fifty Years Identified With The Commerce Of The Missouri Valley

HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN

Publication: Francis P Harper, 1903, New York

First edition. In two volumes. Edition limited to 950 copies. 8vo. Volume I: Blue cloth, gilt stamping on spine, frontis., [portrait], xiv [2], 248 pp., preface, illustrated. Volume II: Blue cloth, gilt stamping on spine, 249-461 pp., illustrated, index. Chittenden presents La Barge's life in chronological order interspersed with topical analyses of various themes, e.g., the types of river craft employed in the fur trade, the art of steamboat navigation, the use of the steamboat in the fur trade, a description of the Indians of the Missouri Valley, and the role of the United States Army on the Missouri." Cuthbertson and Ewers p. 104 say, "Captain La Barge witnessed the entire era of boating activity on the Missouri, from keelboat days of Canadian trappers to the final victory of the railroad over the river; he was on the first boat that went to its upper reaches and made the last voyage from St. Louis to Fort Benton." The business of the fur trade, the intercourse of government agents with the Indians, the campaigns of the army throughout the valley, and the wild rush of gold-seekers to the mountains, all depended, in greater or less degree, upon the Missouri River as a line of transportation. Both volumes lightly rubbed at spine ends and corners else an exceptionally clean, bright set of this important work.

Inventory Number: 49693