Summary of William Least Heat-Moon's River-Horse

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 A man and his dog built a boat that could navigate the Mississippi River. They set out on a mission to test the boat’s capabilities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Oct 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350031836

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I had a C-Dory boat, named Nikawa, that I built in 1995. It was a traditional American dory, with fiberglass upper and lower parts that made the boat a single unit. It was not fast, but it was stable, sturdy, and maneuverable.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The harbor of New York is filled with water that is oily, dirty, and germy. The sludge that accumulates in the harbor is made up of silt, sewage, industrial wastes, and clotted oil.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

We had to follow a Norwegian freighter that was heading out to sea with so little cargo that its massive props were only half in the water. We were nearly on our way to the bottom, 60 feet below. I turned toward the stern to see the bay rear above the transom just before the water raised Nikawa high enough to let the next wave ride under and push her fast toward the chopping props of the freighter.

#2

I had been down enough miles of American road that I could visualize the end of new territory. I began tracing a finger over those twistings in search of a way to cross America in a boat. I wanted to see what America would look like from the rivers.

#3

I had to make the voyage at whatever cost. If a grail appears, the soul must follow it. I had thought about this possibility for 20 years, and it was happening. I was excited and nervous.

Insights from Chapter 4

#1

I began to imagine the bay bottom filled with antique ships and sloops, mired to the cold ooze ten fathoms below, the Hudson currents washing to the sea, working the wreckage and dunnage in the black and perpetual silence.

#2

Manhattan has a river at the end of nearly every through street, and it is a place where you can never be more than a mere mile from the Hudson, Harlem, or East rivers, yet those citizens are islanders only because of a topography that rarely seems to inform their notions of where they are.

#3

I had long heard of its legendary potential for torment, and we detoured a mile northeast just to pass through and experience the pinched bending of Hell Gate, where tidal eddies and standing waves send hundreds of ships to grief after the Tyger first came through from Long Island Sound in 1612.

#4

The Hudson River became the border between New York and New Jersey. I cut the engines and we waited for the railroad bridge to open, which took about 30 minutes.

#5

We arrived at Tarrytown, the western sky began to smear over, and we turned in to dock at the eastern foot of the huge Tappan Zee Bridge. We were thirty miles upriver.

Insights from Chapter 5

#1

The Tappan Zee Bridge is the first of two grand irregularities in the navigable Hudson River. It leads into the Highlands, and its fourteen-mile length demonstrates the river’s constant nature.

#2

The river narrows at Stony Point, where General Mad Anthony Wayne directed a peculiar encounter in 1779.

#3

The Hudson River passes through the Highlands, a part of the Appalachians that is only about fifteen hundred feet high, but their bulk and location right along both banks make them seem much loftier.

Insights from Chapter 6

#1

The grocery and tavern owner, Guinan, was a native Irishwoman. She had a few shelves full of dusty tins and loaves, and a footworn brass shamrock from the cold ashes of a fire.

#2

The Hudson River is a drowned river, with mud that is two to three times the depth of the water. However, in a time period millions of years ago, it was a fierce torrent that cut a deep trough through the hard rock.

#3

The Hudson River is significant in American law as the location of a court battle over threatened despoliation by a power company. The court ruled in favor of the environment.

#4

The Hudson River is the richest American river in history, art, and literature. It has been named Cahohatatea, Shattemuck, Muhheakunnuk, Mahicanittuck, Mohegan, Grande Rivière, Angoleme, Río San Antonio, Río de Gomez, Río de Montaigne, Norumbega, Manhattan, Mauritius, River of the Prince, and (even today) the North.

Insights from Chapter 7

#1

Pollepel Island, a small island just off the east bank of the Hudson River, is home to a fisherman and his wife who think themselves queen of England and wage long battles with storm goblins.

#2

I had heard that Pollepel was sinking. I had prepared for the insects, but not for the darkness. I knew we would have to continue without the anti-ventilation plate, which would be a major repair.

#3

Bannerman’s castle was a ruined skeleton when we visited it seven years later. The immigrant Scot