The Mississippi River is said to run fast and deep. This book shares one characteristic, but not the other. It is not a study of steamboats in great depth, from the diameter of smokestacks on each vessel to the maximum pressure tolerated by various boilers. Rather, it is designed to provide an easily accessible overview of steamboats that in one way or another had ties to what is called the Arkansas Delta. Brief commentary about individual boats is included as well as historic context when a noteworthy one exists. Sections include river craft prior to the advent of steamboats, antebellum...