American Traditions, Vol. One: The Great Steamboat Race

Screen legend Loretta Young (Call of the Wild, The Farmer's Daughter) narrates this excellent opener in the American Tradition series, in which the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen ( the last two overnight steamers) retrace the path of "The Great Steamboat Race" of 1870. Using historical stills from the period, The Great Steamboat Race takes viewers back to the year 1811, a year when bad earthquakes and terrible floods swept the South. It was also the year Robert Fulton launched the New Orleans--the first true Mississippi steamboat. For the rest of the 19th-century, steamboats plyed the mighty river, carrying passengers and cargo (mostly cotton; in fact, in 1881 the Henry Frank carried a record single load of 9,226 bales down the river). The big race of 1870 was about speed (the fastest steamer had the honor of wearing the "Golden Antlers," a rack of antelope horns) and more. The two contestants were the Natchez (a Southern boat) and the Robert E. Lee (ironically considered to be a Northern boat), and the time was the bitter period of Reconstruction. On June 30, 1870 the paddlewheels set to churning from New Orleans on a 1,200 mile race to St. Louis. Filled with anecdotal sidetrips (the origin of the calliope, the Delta Queen's resident ghost--former helmswoman Mary Greene, the many different decks of a steamboat), The Great Steamboat Race is a colorful journey through the Mississippi's past and present. Highly recommended. (Available from: SelectVideo Publishing, 7200 Dry Creek Rd., Suite E205, Englewood, CO 80112; (800) 742-1455.)