The Shoshone was the first steamboat built on the Snake River, Idaho, above Hells Canyon and the first of only two steamboats to be brought down through Hells Canyon to the lower Snake River. This was considered one of the most astounding feats of steamboat navigation ever accomplished.[3]
In the mid-1860s there was a mining boom in the area of Boise, Idaho. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company had tried to run a steamboat, the Colonel Wright, up the Snake River through Hells Canyon, but this proved impossible. As an alternative, O.S.N. decided to build a steamboat on the upper Snake River; this vessel, the Shoshone, was launched in 1866 at Old Fort Boise, Idaho.[4][5]
All the iron and machinery had to be packed in by mule overland, and a forge was set up to hammer the iron into fittings. The timber for her hull and cabins was cut in the mountains and hauled or floated to the construction site, where it was sawn into planks and other components for the vessel. It cost the company as much to build Shoshone as it took to build three boats elsewhere. Although she was a large boat and expensive, Shoshone drew less than two feet of water and had no difficulty navigating the river to Old's Ferry, Idaho.[2][6][7][8]
Operations on upper Snake River
For a short time, under Captain Josiah Myrick, Shoshone carried miners and their equipment from Olds Ferry to the mining areas around Boise. The mining traffic then took a different route, and there was no business for the Shoshone. She was laid up for three years, with only two watchmen keeping an eye on her. This was frustrating for O.S.N. which had enjoyed spectacular success with almost all of its boats, often earning more on a single trip than it had cost (generally not long before) to build the steamboat in the first place.[2][3][7]
Run through Hells Canyon
Advertisement for steamer Shoshone and connecting stage coach lines.
First attempt fails
John C. Ainsworth, president of O.S.N., gave orders to bring her down to the lower Snake River, but this proved difficult. On the first attempt, Shoshone's captain, Cy Smith, took her down Kerr and Cattle Rapids, but abandoned the effort at Lime Point (near Huntington, Oregon), saying with good reason that the whitewater ahead, Copper Ledge Falls, could not be run.[2]Shoshone was laid up at Huntington, Oregon for another year.[2][7]
Top men sent out for second run
In March 1870, Ainsworth assigned two of his best men, Capt. Sebastian "Bas" Miller and Chief Engineer Daniel E. "Buck" Buchanan, to bring her through the canyon or wreck in the attempt. Just reaching the Shoshone was a substantial journey in itself, as there were no railroads or highways of any kind. Miller and Buchanan took a steamboat up to Umatilla, Oregon, where they arrived in March 1870. This was the easy part, for after that they journeyed by buckboard into the Blue Mountains. When the roads ended, they traveled by sled over the snow; then, once the snow ended, by horseback, on foot, and finally by canoe.[2][7]
Preparations for the run
Miller and Buchanan finally reached Shoshone in mid-April 1870, where they signed up one watchman, Livingston, as mate, and the other, Smith, as fireman. Another fellow who was around, W. F. Hedges, also signed on, and these five men became her crew. (Hedges later became a pilot on Puget Sound.[3]) While Miller scouted out the river as best he could, Buchanan then overhauled the engines, tried to remedy the leaky seams in the Shoshone's planks, which made of mountain pine, had dried out, shrunk, and opened up narrow but long gaps between the planks in her hull. (This required water to be pumped over the hull until the planks swelled up.) In those days before electric lighting, Buchanan checked for leaks by leaving lighted candles in the hold of the boat, a risky proposition in a wooden boat that was, as one writer has said, nothing more than a "well-organized pile of kindling." If the boat were to be lost, it would likely be on account of the rapids rather than by fire, so to Buchanan the risk must have appeared reasonable.[2]
Down the canyon
Hells Canyon, 1973
The river rose in mid-April, and by April 19, 1870, judging that the river was high enough to make the run, Captain Miller ordered lines cast off. His plan was to drift down with the current, then run the engines in reverse to gain steering control in the rapids. Going over Copper Ledge Falls, just a few hundred yards downstream, the boat first spun around three times in a powerful eddy just above the drop. Then the bow went over and the whole boat tilted sharply downwards until the sternwheel was spinning around free in the air. Once the boat hit the bottom of the drop, the sternwheel started to break up, throwing the boat out of control and into some rocks which crushed part of her bow. The boat was twisting and wracking and then a boiler valve broke, filling the engine room with steam. Captain Miller put ashore after this, and the crew repaired the vessel. Fortunately the smashed portion of the bow turned out to be above the waterline, and by 9:00a.m. the next day they were ready to proceed.[2][7]
They continued down river, hitting more rapids and cutting wood from trees along the bank for fuel. Captain Miller sent two men ahead in a boat to scout out for rocks and rapids, and the Shoshone proceeded behind them. They ran a particularly hazardous stretch at the Mountain Sheep section in Seven Devils Canyon. The boat was sucked into a whirlpool, and a huge wall of water came aboard, breaking into and nearly flooding the engine room, washing big chunks of cordwood all about the engine room floor. As the men in the engine room dodged these hazards, the Shoshone ran through a passage so narrow that there were only a few inches clearance between the rock walls on both sides of the vessel.[7]
By April 23, a strong wind had come up, and the high wheel house of Shoshone acted like a sail, blowing her from one side of the river to the other. At this time, Shoshone and her crew had reached the deepest part of the canyon, thousands of feet below the canyon rim. In preparation for running this section, they stopped to make further repairs to the sternwheel and gather more wood for fuel. While they were cutting trees, a log rolled over Captain Miller and he was knocked unconscious until the next day. Once he came to, the boat went on, although Captain Miller had been severely injured. They journeyed further downriver until they passed the mouth of the Salmon River on April 26. From then on the running was fairly easy, first to the mouth of the Grande Ronde River, where they halted alongshore. The next day, April 27, the easy running ended when at 7:00a.m. the boat reached the Wild Goose Rapids, which had a reputation as a fierce stretch of whitewater.[9] Captain Miller took Shoshone through them without incident, and arrived at Lewiston, Idaho two hours later.[2][7] As they neared the landing, Captain Miller hollered down the speaking tube to Engineer Buchanan:
Say, Buck, I expect that if this company wanted a couple of men to take a steamboat through hell, they would send for you and me.[10]
Folks at Lewiston were astonished to see Miller, Buchanan, and Shoshone because the boat's jackstaff and flag had broken off in the first rapids, then floated downriver, where it was recovered and seemed firm evidence that Shoshone had been wrecked and her men were dead.[2]
Later years and final wreck
Shoshone was then taken further downriver, making the run over Celilo Falls, itself always reckoned a hazardous stretch, on June 28, 1870. Once below Celilo, she ran as a cattle boat between the upper Cascades and The Dalles. Later she was taken over the Cascades and down to the Willamette River, where she was sold to the Willamette River Transportation Company. The W.R.T. Co. then hauled Shoshone up around Willamette Falls, and ran her on the upper Willamette and also on the Yamhill River.[11] There, perhaps surprisingly for a boat that had run Hells Canyon, she struck a rock near Salem, Oregon in the fall of 1874 and sank. Efforts to raise her failed, although her machinery was salvaged, and later installed in Champion. In January 1875, rising water lifted her free, and washed her down river to Lincoln. There a farmer salvaged her cabins, hauled them ashore, and turned them into a chicken coops.[2][3][7]
Legacy
Only one other steamboat ever ran the Hell's Canyon, Norma in 1895, under Captain William P. Gray. Gray of course knew of Miller and Buchanan's run, studied it, and decided to take Norma down during higher water. He also built an extra bulkhead into the bow and filled the hold with lumber.[2][6]
Notes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Affleck, Edward L., A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska, Alexander Nicholls Press, Vancouver, BC 2000 ISBN0-920034-08-X
↑ Buckendorf, Bauer, and Jacox, "Non-Native Exploration, Settlement, and Land Use of the Greater Hells Canyon Area, 1800s to 1950s"(p23), Technical Report Appendix E.4.11, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Re-licensing application, Idaho Power Company, 2003
1 2 Timmen, Fritz, Blow for the Landing -- A Hundred Years of Steam Navigation on the Waters of the West, at 143-44, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID 1973 ISBN0-87004-221-1
↑ These were located 28 miles (45km) above Asotin, Washington. Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 206, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1966 ISBN0-87564-220-9
↑ Corning, Howard McKinley, Willamette Landings -- Ghost Towns on the River, at 127 and 184, Oregon Historical Society, Portland, OR (2d Ed. 1973) ISBN0-87595-042-6
The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At 1,078 miles (1,735 km) long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake River rises in western Wyoming, then flows through the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, the rugged Hells Canyon on the Oregon–Idaho border and the rolling Palouse Hills of Washington, emptying into the Columbia River at the Tri-Cities in the Columbia Basin of Eastern Washington.
Many steamboats operated on the Columbia River and its tributaries, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, from about 1850 to 1981. Major tributaries of the Columbia that formed steamboat routes included the Willamette and Snake rivers. Navigation was impractical between the Snake River and the Canada–US border, due to several rapids, but steamboats also operated along the Wenatchee Reach of the Columbia, in northern Washington, and on the Arrow Lakes of southern British Columbia.
Steamboats on the Columbia River system were wrecked for many reasons, including striking rocks or logs ("snags"), fire, boiler explosion, or puncture or crushing by ice. Sometimes boats could be salvaged, and sometimes not.
The Willamette River flows northwards down the Willamette Valley until it meets the Columbia River at a point 101 miles from the Pacific Ocean, in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The Oneonta was a sidewheel steamboat that operated on the Columbia River from 1863 to 1877.
R. R. Thompson was a large sternwheel steamboat designed in the classic Columbia River style. She was named after Robert R. Thompson, one of the shareholders of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, the firm that built the vessel.
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The sidewheeler Idaho was a steamboat that ran on the Columbia River and Puget Sound from 1860 to 1898. There is some confusion as to the origins of the name; many historians have proposed it is the inspiration for the name of the State of Idaho. Considerable doubt has been cast on this due to the fact that it is unclear if the boat was named before or after the idea of 'Idaho' as a territory name was proposed. John Ruckel also allegedly stated he had named the boat after a Native American term meaning 'Gem of the Mountains' he got from a mining friend from what is now Colorado territory. This steamer should not be confused with the many other vessels of the same name, including the sternwheeler Idaho built in 1903 for service on Lake Coeur d'Alene and the steamship Idaho of the Pacific Coast Steamship Line which sank near Port Townsend, Washington.
Nez Perce Chief was a steamboat that operated on the upper Columbia River, in Washington, U.S., specifically the stretch of the river that began above the Celilo Falls. Her engines came from the Carrie Ladd, an important earlier sternwheeler. Nez Perce Chief also ran up the Snake River to Lewiston, Idaho, a distance of 141 miles from the mouth of the Snake River near Wallula, Wash. Terr.
Willamette Chief was a sternwheel steamboat built in 1874 for the Willamette River Navigation Company.
Kootenai was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia from 1885 to 1895. Kootenai was the second sternwheeler to run on the Arrow Lakes. This vessel should not be confused with the similarly named Kootenay, an 1897 sternwheeler that also ran on the Arrow Lakes.
James D. Miller was a steamboat captain in the Pacific Northwest from 1851 to 1903. He became well known for his long length of service, the large number of vessels he commanded, and the many different geographical areas in which he served.
The Multnomah was one of the first steamboats to operate on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers. This vessel should not be confused with the Multnomah, a steamboat built in Portland, Oregon in 1885, which was larger and of a much different design.
The steamboat Oregona operated on the Willamette River, the Columbia River and the Yamhill River from 1904 to 1936. From 1924 to 1936 this vessel was known as the Interstate.
Jennie Clark, also seen spelled Jenny Clark, was the first sternwheel-driven steamboat to operate on the rivers of the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia. This vessel was commonly known as the Jennie when it was in service. The design of the Jennie Clark set a pattern for all future sternwheel steamboats built in the Pacific Northwest and in British Columbia.
Unio was a small sternwheel-driven steamboat which operated on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers from 1861 to 1869. This vessel is primarily remembered for its having been named Unio when built in 1861, in the first year of the American Civil War, and then having the name completed, to Union, by a new, staunchly pro-Union owner, James D. Miller. Union appears to have sunk in 1869, been salvaged, and then dismantled, with the machinery going to a new steamer then being built for service on the Umpqua River.
Robert Young was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Columbia and Willamette rivers from 1918 to 1935. This vessel was originally named Nespelem, and operated under that name until 1920. From 1920 to 1935, this vessel was owned by the Western Transportation Company or one of its subsidiaries, and was employed primarily in service to paper mills.
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Relief was a stern-wheel steamboat that operated on the Columbia and Willamette rivers and their tributaries from 1906 to 1931. Relief had been originally built in 1902, on the Columbia at Blalock, Oregon, in Gilliam County, and launched and operated as Columbia, a much smaller vessel. Relief was used primarily as a freight carrier, first for about ten years in the Inland Empire region of Oregon and Washington, hauling wheat and fruit, and after that was operated on the lower Columbia river.
Mountain Gem was a sternwheel-driven steamboat that operated on the Snake and Columbia rivers from 1904 to 1912, when the machinery was removed and installed in a different, newly built steamboat. Mountain Gem remained on the U.S. merchant vessel registry until 1922 or later. Although Mountain Gem was not abandoned until 1924, there is no evidence it was used after 1912.
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