Welcome to Litsy!

As a Pittsburgher, I was aware of my city's steel production past, but I was unaware of our roots in the flatboat industry. From the research Buck did, to the actual construction of the flatboat "Patience", to the journey itself, this book was un-put-downable for me. There's danger, excitement and a real sense of this country in this book, along with a small side of "We are going to die."

Part US history, part memoir, part adventure. This book chronicles Buck‘s team building and taking a flatboat from PA to New Orleans. A lot of this book reminded me of doing multi-day rafting trips in UT, CO, and AZ, albeit with more interactions with a variety of cities and people. This book caters to an adventurer and a historian.

Another good one by this author. He built a flatboat from designs from the 1800s and went down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers with a rag tag crew. He explored the rivers ecology, the human impact on the rivers, the people and towns and businesses living along the rivers, the rivers history, and the rivers importance to our economy. If you like travel books or history books or rivers you will like this book. Narrative nonfiction and funny.

Thank you Ann Patchett for recommending this nonfiction #audiobook gem. Buck travels from the Monongahela to the Ohio and down the Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans on a flatboat in this epic adventure full of interesting characters and fascinating history! Flatboats preceded steamboats, and Buck writes about the settlement of the West but doesn‘t discount painful parts. I even learned new things about the towns that surround mine on the Ohio!

And so my journey on The Underground River ends. Although there was a bit of a setup for a sequel so we‘ll see. It took exactly halfway through the book for involvement in the Underground Railroad to begin. The next quarter was really slow which took me awhile to get through. Ending had more action and held my interest again. Between a pick and a so-so for me. #historicalfiction #undergroundrailroad #cle #clevelandauthor #theatre #ohioriver