The Monongahela

If anyone had told me I’d be entranced by a book about coal boats moving thirty million tons of coal down the Monongahela River during the 1940’s, well, I would have thought you’d lost your coal stones. I guffawed my way through the first chapter and was pinned to the pages from thereon in. Richard Bissell has artfully intertwined his experiences as a pilot on the Coal Queen with historical facts and anecdotes about the boats and men who made the Monongahela River in West Virginia into one ...