They Called Us River Rats: The Last Batture Settlement of New Orleans is the previously untold story of perhaps the oldest outsider settlement in America, an invisible community on the annually flooded shores of the Mississippi River. This community exists in the place between the normal high and low water line of the Mississippi River, a zone known in Louisiana as the batture. For the better part of two centuries, batture dwellers such as Macon Fry have raised shantyboats on stilts, built water-adapted homes, foraged, fished, and survived using the skills a river teaches. Until now the stories of this way of life have existed only in the memories of those who have lived here. Beginning in 2000, Fry set about recording the stories of all the old batture dwellers he could find: maritime workers, willow furniture makers, fishermen, artists, and river shrimpers. Along the way, Fry uncovered fascinating tales of fortune tellers, faith healers, and wild bird trappers who defiantly lived on the river. They Called Us River Rats also explores the troubled relationship between people inside the levees, the often-reviled batture folks, and the river itself. It traces the struggle between batture folks and city authorities, the commercial interests that claimed the river, and Louisiana’s most powerful politicians. These conflicts have ended in legal battles, displacement, incarceration, and even lynching. Today Fry is among the senior generation of “River Rats” living in a vestigial colony of twelve “camps” on New Orleans’s river batture, a fragment of a settlement that once stretched nearly six miles and numbered hundreds of homes. It is the last riparian settlement on the Lower Mississippi and a contrarian, independent life outside urban zoning, planning, and flood protection. This book is for everyone who ever felt the pull of the Mississippi River or saw its towering levees and wondered who could live on the other side.

Starting in St. Louis, Missouri, River Rat journeys down the Mississippi River for an adventure of discovery. The river measures 2,320 miles and can be very wide in places. There are a lot of exciting things to see. Along the way, River Rat experiences the sights and sounds typically found on a large waterway, from fishing to birds to wildlife and more. He arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana, just in time for Mardi Gras. Inspired by author Nitha Ann Nebbitt’s experiences on the Mississippi as a child, this picture book for children introduces kids to nature and the wonder of this mighty river.

In Tales of a River Rat, famed storyteller and self-described hermit Kenny Salwey informs and entertains readers as he weaves his life story on the Mississippi River. Salwey knows the river ecosystem with an intimacy unavailable to most. Here he shares his love of and knowledge about the mighty river in an accessible manner sure to appeal to all ages.

Kenny Salwey is a modern-day American hermit who has lived most of his life in the Mississippi river bottoms, coming to know the river ecosystem with an intimacy unavailable to most. Now, Kenny shares his love of, and knowledge about, the mighty river. The Last River Rat is a seasonal look at Kenny's unique life.

Colorful characters once populated the Upper Mississippi River Valley swamps and floodplain forests. These are the river rats, hill folk, and swamp dogs whose stories Kenny Salwey tells so well. Now long gone, these legendary denizens of the river bottoms come alive in Kenny’s signature brand of storytelling, rife with insight and laughter, woodslore and a time-tested philosophy of the natural world. With a foreword by regional historian Gary Schlosstein, this deep delving into the old-time community of the Mississippi River presents a rich picture of a life as fascinating as it is fast-disappearing in our fast-paced, high-tech world.

“Calling to mind such widely disparate writers as Mark Twain, Andre Norton and Peter Dickinson, Stevermer paints a realistic ruin of society.” —Publishers Weekly The award-winning author of the Scholarly Magic series delivers the thrilling adventure of a crew of young kids working their way through a post-apocalyptic world on a steamboat they call home . . . No one knows for sure what caused the Flash. They just know that nothing has been the same since. Cities have been destroyed by pestilence, riots, and fires. The paddleboat River Rat, once a museum, was turned into an orphanage. But a dangerous storm forced the children to flee with the boat to safer waters, making it theirs for good. Since then, Tomcat, Toby, Esteban, Lindy, Spike, and Jake have traveled, bartered, and performed their way up and down the Mississippi River. One rule that has served them well: no passengers. But after watching a man on shore being pursued by a vicious pack of locals, the group has no choice but to save him. At every stop, the boat is met by the man’s tireless hunters. They want what the fugitive knows: the location of a bunker filled with guns. A currency more valuable than gold . . . and one that the crew of the River Rat might well pay for—with their lives. “An unusual, compelling futuristic novel . . . wry, sharp, lively, and perceptive.” —The Horn Book (starred review) “Too good to miss.” —Booklist An ALA Best Book for Young Adults A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

A fascinating account of how the Mississippi River shaped America In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America's rich history—the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent's interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln's attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi. In the 19th century, home-grown folk heroes such as Daniel Boone and the half-alligator, half-horse, Mike Fink, were creatures of the river. Mark Twain and Herman Melville led their characters down its stream in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Confidence-Man. A conduit of real-life American prowess, the Mississippi is also a river of stories and myth. Schneider traces the history of the Mississippi from its origins in the deep geologic past to the present. Though the busiest waterway on the planet today, the Mississippi remains a paradox—a devastated product of American ingenuity, and a magnificent natural wonder.