While traveling on the American Queen Steamboat on the Illinois River, my husband Dick and I learned some of the fascinating history of life on our “rivers of commerce.” In the early days, flatboaters with their goods floated down our waterways to their destinations which could be Memphis, Natchez, New Orleans or other ports south. When they arrived with their cargo, there was no way to get their craft back north, so they usually broke up the raft and sold the wood. The walk back home could be very dangerous with thugs robbing or even killing them. The Natchez Trace was one of the routes north.
Two of the most ruthless outlaws were the Harpe brothers who robbed and murdered indiscriminately in the late 1790s. When they were finally caught and killed, their heads were displayed on posts at a crossroad in Kentucky called Harp’s Head as a warning to other ne’er-do-wells. Yikes! What a gruesome sight that must have been.