The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou
The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou by Andrew W. Hall
English | October 30, 2012 | ISBN: 1540221172, 1609495918 | True EPUB | 146 pages | 6.4 MB
English | October 30, 2012 | ISBN: 1540221172, 1609495918 | True EPUB | 146 pages | 6.4 MB
Many imagine the settlement of the American West as signaled by the dust of the wagon train or the whistle of a locomotive. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, though, the growth of Texas and points west centered on the seventy-mile water route between Galveston and Houston.
This single vital link stood between the agricultural riches of the interior and the mercantile enterprises of the coast, with a round of operations that was as sophisticated and efficient as that of any large transport network today. At the same time, the packets on the overnight Houston-Galveston run earned a reputation as colorful as their Mississippi counterparts, complete with impromptu steamboat races, makeshift naval gunboats during the Civil War, professional gamblers and horrific accidents.