Ghosts along the Mississippi River
Publication Year: 2011
Some of the nation's most compelling ghost stories owe their origin to "The Father of Waters." Ghosts along the Mississippi River is the first book-length collection of ghost tales from the small towns and bustling cities that have grown up along its banks. The states represented in this book include Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Unlike most collections of "true" ghost stories, Ghosts along the Mississippi River draws from the folk traditions of the northern and the southern United States. These tales are populated with Federal and Confederate soldiers, Native Indians, wealthy entrepreneurs, actors, college students, hotel owners, preachers, slaves, and planters. According to some paranormal investigators, the large number of ghost stories from the Mississippi's river towns, and from watery sites all over the world, are proof that large bodies of water are conductors of psychic energy. Granted, no concrete proof exists that there is a definite connection between the river and any actual ghosts or spiritual phenomena. What is indisputable, though, is the fact that the ghost stories included in Ghosts along the Mississippi River are an invaluable record of the values, dreams, fears, and lives of the people who have called the river home.
Published by: University Press of Mississippi
Cover
Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
Contents
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pp. vii-xi
Acknowledgments
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pp. xiii-
Introduction: The Father of Waters: The Mississippi River
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pp. 3-6
The Mississippi River is, and always has been, the most important river in the United States. Second only to the Missouri River in length, the Mississippi’s drainage area covers 40 percent of the United States and forms the...
Arkansas
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pp. 7-10
Holly Grove is the land where the Europeans first crossed the Mississippi River in 1541. In the early 1800s, the earliest families settled in Baytown twenty miles south of Holly Grove. Most of them were from North and...
Illinois
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pp. 11-48
In 1818, Rufus Easton founded Alton, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Missouri River. The riverfront is dotted with huge grain silos, the sides of which bear marks indicating the levels the Mississippi River’s floodwaters....
Iowa
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pp. 49-59
Davenport is located on the border between Iowa and Illinois. During the signing of the treaty that ended the Blackhawk War in 1832, Sauk Indian chief Keokuk gave a large tract of land to Marguerite LeClaire, the wife of Antoine...
Louisiana
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pp. 60-84
Named after Philippe II, Duc d’Orleans, Regent of France, New Orleans was founded on May 7, 1718, by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. In 1763, the Spanish took control of New Orleans. In 1801, the French regained...
Minnesota
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pp. 85-111
The Sioux Indians were the first inhabitants in what is now St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1819, the U.S. Army established Fort Anthony in the area as a temporary fort. It became a permanent fort between 1820 and 1822. It covered...
Mississippi
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pp. 112-142
The first inhabitants of Natchez, Mississippi, were the Natchez Indians. Hernando De Soto, La Salle, and Bienville all made contact with the Natchez Indians. The French founded Fort Rosalie in 1716 to protect the newly established trading...
Missouri
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pp. 143-179
Two French brothers, Francois and Joseph Lesieur, started the settlement that eventually grew into the town of New Madrid. They were followed by hundreds of French settlers from Canada. In 1789, Colonel George...
Tennessee
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pp. 180-201
When Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto arrived in the Memphis area in 1541, he encountered the original inhabitants, the Chickasaw Indians. In 1682, French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, built Fort...
Wisconsin
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pp. 202-211
A Baptist minister named Elder Card platted West Salem, Wisconsin, in 1856 on ten acres of land donated by a railroad company. A New Englander named Thomas Leon had built the first log cabin there in 1851. Card named...
Works Cited
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pp. 213-226
Index
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pp. 227-238
E-ISBN-13: 9781617031458
E-ISBN-10: 1617031453
Print-ISBN-13: 9781617031441
Print-ISBN-10: 1617031445
Page Count: 208
Publication Year: 2011
