“When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition
among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
That was, to be a steamboatman. We had a hope that if we lived and were good,
God would permit us to be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn;
but the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained.” ~ Mark Twain
TAMING HUCK FINN, inspired by Mark Twain's iconic
adventurer, begins in the summer of 1870 in Atchison, Kansas, which served as a
bustling port along the Missouri River.
In those days, steamboats transported
goods to settlements and army forts up and down the river, as well as hauling
miners traveling to and from the Montana gold fields.
Freedom-loving Huck Finn works as a part-time steamboat
pilot when he's not off searching for gold.
The sprawling, unpredictable Missouri River provides the
perfect landscape for my story about a restless man whose goal is to stay one
step ahead of civilization.
In those days, it
took nerves of steel to pilot a steamboat on the wild, untamed Missouri River.
A few of the things steamboat pilots encountered: elusive, ill-defined and
ever-changing channels, getting stranded in low water, innumerable and often
invisible snags, whirlpools, Indian attacks--to name but a few.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, close to 300
steamboats went down in the river between 1830 and 1902.
Historians
estimate almost half of all the boats that plied the Missouri were lost to
various accidents, with snags taking most of them to their watery grave. The
“Muddy Mo” had a voracious appetite for steamboats!
Huck Finn, Riverboat Pilot
The type of boat Huck pilots is a "mountain boat.”
These sternwheelers were smaller and
A replica of the Far West pilothouse shows a pair of
antelope antlers mounted in front to indicate it was a "fast boat" --
Grant made a record-breaking run down the Missouri River in 1876 after he
picked up the wounded from the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Packet steamboating on the Missouri River lasted from the
1820s to the 1880s, with the greatest period of activity between 1840 and 1860.
The railroads contributed primarily to the demise of steamboat business by
siphoning off long-haul passenger and freight business.
In 1867, there were 71
steamers regularly plying the Missouri River. Three years later there were only 9. (Wild River, Wooden Boats, Michael Gillespie, Heritage Press).
His greatest adventure is about to catch up with him.
Steamboat pilot Huck Finn lives life on his own terms and
steers clear of messy entanglements that might tie him down—until he takes
charge of an orphaned boy that needs rescuing.
Starched and proper, Miss Hallie MacBride is determined to
atone for past sins by raising her estranged sister’s son. She doesn’t expect
footloose Mr. Finn to challenge her, much less up and run off with her nephew.
On a wild journey fraught with danger, a freedom-loving
adventurer and an avowed spinster battle over the destiny of a young boy, who
is doing his level best to convince them they belong together.
I'll be giving away an autographed copy of TAMING HUCK FINN in a random drawing. To enter, leave a comment.
I've always dreamed of taking a trip on an honest-to-goodness steamboat up the Missouri River. Sadly, that's not possible unless I go back in time!
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME AND TAKE A JOURNEY SOMEWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHY?
