The Green River of Kentucky (eBook)

Helen Bartter Crocker (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
126 Seiten
The University Press of Kentucky (Verlag)
978-0-8131-8902-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Cutting a wide east-west swath from the Appalachian foothills to the heart of the western Kentucky coalfields, the Green River valley extends from below the Tennessee border in the south to the Ohio River in the north. The Green River of Kentucky presents a picture of the unity and diversity of the people living in the Green River valley.Helen Bartter Crocker finds that each generation of its people approached the river in a distinctive way. Early settlers used the river simply as it wascrooked and narrow with an unpredictable water flow, and navigable only under high-water conditions. The sons of these pioneers were interested in bringing steamboats to the valley; until they succeeded in persuading the state legislature to improve the Green River and its tributary, the Barren, by a series of locks and dams, however, volunteers would workoften up to their necks in wateruntil they cleared the river sufficiently to allow steamers to reach Bowling Green at high water.When the locks and dams were reopened following the Civil War, a local private corporation gained a near-monopoly of the river trade. Public outcry against this private ownership caused the federal government to take control, and through the Corps of Engineers, to undertake extensive river improvements. After the Great Depression, when trade was almost at a standstill, additional federal funds were appropriated for flood-control dams in the upper river and modern locks in the lower river to harness the valley's industrial potential. These opened up coal barging and recreational facilities, which ensured the future economic well being of the Green River valley.

Autor

Helen Bartter Crocker is assistant professor of history at Western Kentucky University.

Inhalt

The Pioneer Settlements, 1780-1830
Kentucky Improves the Wild River, 1833-1868
The Monarchs of Green River, 1868-1888
The Final Steamboat Era, 1888-1931
Coal, Flood Control, and the Environmentalists, 1931-1975

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 14.12.2021
• Reihe/Serie: Kentucky Bicentennial Bookshelf
• Reihe/Serie: Kentucky Bicentennial Bookshelf
• Zusatzinfo: 11 b&w halftones, 2 maps, 1 printed music item
• Verlagsort: Lexington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 130 x 130 mm
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Naturführer
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Schlagworte: Appalachia • Barren • Bowling Green • coal • coal barging • coalfields • Corps of Engineers • Dams • flood-control dams • Great Depression • Green River valley • Hills • Human-Environmental Interaction • locks • ohio river • Pioneers • post-Civil War • river trade • settlers • steamboats • steamers • steampower • Tennessee • western kentucky
• ISBN-10: 0-8131-8902-0 / 0813189020
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-8902-4 / 9780813189024