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Delaware Diary: Episodes in the Life of a River

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Description

Everyone knows that Washington crossed the Delaware and turned the “times that try men’s souls” into a triumphal victory. And as of late residents of and visitor to New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania enjoy canoeing and tubing, shad fishing and bed and breakfasting along the Delaware. Have you ever wondered concerning the life of the river within the two centuries in between? The Delaware was once the scene of essential events after the Revolution, too- an early and tragic experiment in steam propulsion, a notoriously lethal prison camp within the Civil War, memorable floods, hurricanes, ice storms, or even a furious battle with the U.S. army.

Frank Dale, who has lived near the Delaware all of his life, has burrowed into old newspaper files and archives and traced down eyewitnesses o the life of the Delaware. Rivers were the highways of choice in early The united states, and the Delaware presented much greater challenges than the nearby Hudson. Filled with rapid, falls, and inconvenient rocks, the river refused to deal with itself easily to the needs of commerce. The rivermen who ventured down the Delaware on massive timber rafts or Durham boats filled with iron ore earned a deserved reputation for pure ornery courage. Later entrepreneurs tried steamboats, canals, and bridges to try to harness and exploit this most unexploitable river, with decidedly mixed results. In up to date times, the Tocks Island Dam was once defeated by a community that had come to admire the river’s stubborn resistance to being conquered and harnesses to human ends. Canoeists and waterside strollers can now appreciate its unspoiled beauties.
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