The Galveston Houston Packet Steamboats On Buffalo Bayou

Download or read book The Galveston-Houston Packet: Steamboats on Buffalo Bayou written by Andrew W. Hall and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.