SEPT. 18 ISSUE ANSWERS: Last week’s article about the Native American/French cross Michigan water route of the French priest Father Henri Nouvel inspired Joan and I to bike along part of the rivers that he paddled. We biked along the Saginaw, the Tittabawasse and the Chippewa Rivers. We wanted to see water the priest experienced. The first English speaking residents of Romeo in 1821 also traveled on the water. After the Baileys traveled the 93 miles from their home south of Rochester New York, they arrived in Buffalo, New York. The latest in travel to Detroit was the newly built Walk-In-the-Water steam boat. The oil painting above by Robert McGreevy is probably our best guess of what the Walk-In-The-Water looked like. Since no one painted pictures of the actual boat, we only have written descriptions of the boat. What we do know is the boat was built in 1818 at Black Rock, New York for use on the upper Great Lakes. It was 132 feet long and 32 feet wide. The hull was painted white with two gray stripes. It carried a four pound wheeled cannon which was used to announce its arrival and departure. The steam whistle was not invented yet.