The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou

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.

Author: Andrew W. Hall
Publisher: History Press
Published: 10/30/2012
Pages: 144
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.40d
ISBN13: 9781609495916
ISBN10: 1609495918
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | State & Local | Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX)
- Transportation | Ships & Shipbuilding | History
- Transportation | Ships & Shipbuilding | Pictorial