160 pgs. b&w photos, maps. 2002. Upper elementary, middle school, high school.

The adventure and danger that we associate with the Wild West were alive in the Carolinas long before settlers and gold diggers trekked the long, rugged miles across the plains and wilderness. As the West was explored and eventually settled, Carolinians had to contend not only with the same Indian warfare, boundary disputes, and gold fever, but also with pirates, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War.

Remarkably, in spite of all those contentious conditions, some semblence of a society was managed in those early days. The economics of survival required it. The gargantuan task of moving agricultural products from the interior to the coastal ports was key to that survival, with the Carolinas' inland waterways providing access to more than fifty percent of the interior.

From the earliest days of colonization, hundreds of every conceivable type of vessel were brought to bear in transporting goods from the intercoastal ports. Even after rail transportation was introduced in the early 1800s, inland waterborne freight continued to be vital, well into the twentieth century.

This is a unique book, as important to local history buffs, as it is to the nation, capturing the spirit of river transportation with hundreds of rare photographs, newspaper clippings, and even firsthand accounts from the men who plied the rivers of the Carolinas. Earl White masterfully brings together a vast wealth of research in the way that only an author who truly loves his subject matter can.

Curriculum Applications: 4th Grade Social Studies - geography, the economy and technological influences; 8th Grade Social Studies - primary sources, economics, technological influences; Science - the hydrosphere

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