Mike Fink (also spelled Miche Phinck)O'Neil, Paul. ''The Old West: The Rivermen''. Time-Life Books, New York. 1975 p. 71NBC News: "Mike Fink; an American anti-hero"
/ref> (c. 1770/1780 – c. 1823), called "king of the keelboaters", was a semi-legendary brawler and

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

boatman who exemplified the tough and hard-drinking men who ran

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

s up and down the

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

and

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

Historical figure

Mike Fink was born at Fort Pitt in present-day

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and served as an Indian scout in his teenage years. Even as a teenager, he was an unbeatable marksman, and he earned the name "Bangall" among militiamen at Fort Pitt. When the Indian wars of the region ended, in the mid 1790s, Fink, like many other scouts, spurned a sedentary life as a farmer. Instead, he drifted into the transport business on the

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and quickly picked up a new nickname: "the snapping turtle". When he began his career in navigation, he became notorious, both for his

practical joke A practical joke, or prank, is a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort.Marsh, Moira. 2015. ''Practically Joking''. Logan: Utah State University Press. ...

s, and for his willingness to fight anyone who was not amused. His 180-pound frame stretched 6'3" in height, and the muscles required to force a keelboat upstream would have made him a formidable opponent to most. It was said that he could drink a gallon of whisky and still shoot the tail off a pig at 90 paces; and Fink, himself, proclaimed, on every possible occasion, that he could "out-run, out-hop, out-jump, throw-down, drag out, and lick any man in the country". He and his friends were supposed to have amused themselves by shooting cups of

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...

from each other's heads. Other repeating episodes, of the Mike Fink legends, include a tale where he shoots the scalp lock from the head of an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

, and a story in which he shoots the protruding heel from the foot of an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

with surgical precision. Hauled into court, he pointed out to a judge that his victim would never have been able to wear a fashionable boot if a

good Samaritan In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

, namely himself, had not intervened on the man's behalf. Besides imagined feats making part of the legend of Mike Fink, it may have also been woven from two (or more) men with the same name. Mike Fink signed up as one of Ashley's Hundred and formed a part of the band that built Fort Henry. If this man had been the one born at Fort Pitt about 1770, he would have been, at least, 50 years old. Such an advanced age, in that group of teenage boys, would have been remarked on.

Hugh Glass Hugh Glass ( 1783 – 1833) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, trader, hunter and explorer. He is best known for his story of survival and forgiveness after being left for dead by companions when he was mauled by a grizzly bear. No reco ...

, the mountain man who survived a grizzly bear mauling, was called "Old Hugh", for being in his early 40s. No journal mentions Fink's advanced age, so it may have been a younger Mike Fink who joined the expedition of the Ashley Rocky Mountain Fur Company.

Davy Crockett David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of ...

is supposed to have described him as "half horse and half alligator." Fink wore a red feather in his cap, to signal his defeat of every strong man, up and down the river. Henry Howe's ''Historical Collections of Ohio'' contained an 1806 (1886?) interview with Capt. John Fink, who said that Mike Fink was a relative.

When I was a lad," John told me, "about ten years of age, our family lived four miles up river from Wheeling, on the river. Mike laid up (landed) his boat near us, though he generally had two boats. This was his last trip, and he went away to the far West; the country here was getting too civilized, and he was disgusted with progress. This was about 1815.

In the management of his business Mike Fink was a rigid disciplinarian; woe to the man who shirked his responsibilities or did not carry his own weightliterally. He always had his woman along with him, and would allow no other man to speak with her. She was sometimes a subject for his wonderful skill in marksmanship with the
rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
. He would have her hold on the top of her head a tin cup filled with
whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ...
, which he would put a bullet through. Another of his feats was to have her hold it between her knees, as in a vise, and then shoot.

According to the Miami Valley Historical Society, (specifically, ''Miami Valley Vignettes'' by George C. Crout), until 1815, when he moved west, Mike Fink did not operate keel boats on the Ohio but on the

Great Miami River The Great Miami River (also called the Miami River) (Shawnee: ''Msimiyamithiipi'') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accesse ...

from the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

Fort Loramie Fort Loramie is a village in Shelby County, Ohio, United States, along Loramie Creek, a tributary of the Great Miami River in southwestern Ohio. It is 42 mi. northnorthwest of Dayton and 20 mi. east of the Ohio/Indiana border. The ...

, where portage was made to the

Maumee River The Maumee River (pronounced ) ( sjw, Hotaawathiipi; mia, Taawaawa siipiiwi) is a river running in the United States Midwest from northeastern Indiana into northwestern Ohio and Lake Erie. It is formed at the confluence of the St. Joseph and ...

in order to continue going on up to

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also ha ...

. If it was indeed he who joined Ashley's Hundred, Fink died in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

in 1823, during the course of Ashley's expedition. Some say it was a drunken argument over what he always called a ''chère amie''a romantic interest. Timothy Field, in 1829, said that in a drunken stupor, when aiming at a mug of beer from the head of his longtime friend, a companion named Carpenter, he shot low; shortly thereafter, his other longtime friend, Talbot, retaliated by killing Fink, using Carpenter's pistol.

In popular culture

The recorded exploits of Mike Fink featured mostly in American

broadside ballad A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between t ...

dime novel The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...

s, and other subliterary texts from before the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

era. The first known reference to the character is in an 1821

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

, ''The Pedlar'' by Alphonso Wetmore. Here, Fink appears as the

stereotypical In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

bully Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an i ...

and braggart. He appears frequently in stories involving the Davy Crockett cycle, but Fink lacked Crockett's more admirable traits. Over time, the unlikeable features of the character came even more to the forefront, and Fink was portrayed increasingly as a

who got his comeuppance. After the Civil War, the character began to be neglected; the mood of Americans disinclined them to admire a bumptious and violent folk hero. In the early 20th century, there was an attempt to revive his popularity, spearheaded by Colonel Henry Shoemaker, a

folklorist, who collected Mike Fink tales, and saw the character as a local equivalent to Crockett, but Shoemaker's attempt at reviving the character sputtered. In 1955, Mike Fink (as portrayed by character actor

Jeff York Jeff York (March 23, 1912 – October 11, 1995) was an American film and television actor who began his career in the late 1930s using his given name, Granville Owen Scofield. He was also sometimes credited as Jeff Yorke. Career York served in ...

) appeared in two episodes of the '' Davy Crockett miniseries'' of ABC's ''

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...

'' opposite the popular

(portrayed by

Fess Parker Fess Elisha Parker Jr. (born F. E. Parker Jr.;Weaver, Tom.Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde: Interviews with 62 Filmmakers p. 148 (McFarland 2012). August 16, 1924 – March 18, 2010),(March 18, 2010Daniel Boone Actor Fess Parker Dies at 85" ''CBS ...

). These episodes were later compiled into a feature film entitled '' Davy Crockett and the River Pirates'', released in 1956. Elements of the Fink legend were present in

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

's rendition, but the character was played mostly for laughs as a foil for the infallible Crockett. Keel boats bearing Fink's name,

Mike Fink Keel Boats Mike Fink Keel Boats (or River Rogue Keel Boats) were small boats that navigated the Rivers of America at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. History The Mike Fink Keel Boats were b ...

, operated at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom's Liberty Square until they were quietly retired in the late 1990s, when one unexpectedly capsized and dumped guests and cast members into the river. In 1958, Zachary Ball, known as an author who wrote adventure stories for boys, wrote a fictional account of the early life of Mike Fink entitled ''Young Mike Fink''. Similar to Disney's portrayal of Fink, Ball's title character is good natured and helpful despite his sometimes hooligan and contrary temperament. Mike Fink also appears in

Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerou ...

's parodic fairy-tale '' The Robber Bridegroom''. In

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...

's ''

The Tales of Alvin Maker ''The Tales of Alvin Maker'' is a series of six alternate history fantasy novels written by American novelist Orson Scott Card, published from 1987 to 2003 (with one more planned), that explore the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who ...

'', an

alternate Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

version of Mike Fink appears in every novel after the first. Unlike other significant characters, he has no magical knack, but, prior to meeting Alvin, he was made invincible by means of a tattoo given to him at birth (similar to

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pe ...

). In the books, his invulnerability is what made him a bully; having no conception of pain, he could not appreciate the effects of his actions ('' Prentice Alvin''). In '' Alvin Journeyman'', he resurfaces, grateful to Alvin for both sparing his life and teaching him the folly of his previous life of violence. Mike Fink is played by

Forrest Tucker Forrest Meredith Tucker (February 12, 1919 – October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked as a vaudeville straight man at the age of fifteen. A mentor provided fund ...

in the 1977 made for TV film ''The Incredible Rocky Mountain Race'', in which Fink is pitted in a rivalry against Mississippi riverboater and future author

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

in a cross-country scavenger hunt, although the real-life Twain was born twelve years after Fink's death. Much of the story and its humor is culled from Twain's various works. In 1998, children's author, Steven Kellogg, wrote a book entitled ''Mike Fink: A Tall Tale.'' As in his other books, Kellogg's account of Fink incorporates tall tales with vivid illustrations – highlighting the main character's positive side. Mike Fink is a prime character in the 2007 young-adult historical novel '' Mississippi Jack'' by

Louis A. Meyer Louis A. Meyer (January 1, 1942 – July 29, 2014)Meyer, L.A, brief autobiography on author's own webpage. Accessed February 25, 2009. was a Maine author. Writing under the name L.A. Meyer, he was best known for his young-adult historical series ...

. In it, Fink is outwitted by the main character of the book series. He is portrayed as a large, hairy, loud man who constantly boasts about his many feats in life. He is first met while traveling down the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into New York then i ...

and is later seen in

, where he is put in jail for fighting. On the Ohio River in Cincinnati, OH and Covington, KY, a riverboat restaurant called Mike Fink's was a popular attraction for over 40 years. It specialized in fresh seafood and had a large raw bar in the center of the boat. It closed in 2008 and was moved in 2014 to Newport, KY, with the hope it would be renovated and reopened. However, the boat ended up as a shop barge in 2019. Mike Fink also appear in Fate/Grand Order as an enemy. There are some tall tales that mention he had a daughter named Sal Fink, who was said to be equally daring and known for her holler.

References

External links

Mike Fink Tales and Stories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fink, Mike 1770 births 1823 deaths American folklore American sailors Folklore of the Southern United States Mississippi River Mountain men People from Pittsburgh People of the American Old West Tall tales

Historical figure

In popular culture

See also

References

External links