Steamboats on the Upper Columbia - Washington Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

"The upper Columbia River has long been used as a transportation route. Native Americans traveled its waters and later the white man used it as a route for exploration and the fur trade. Steamboat navigation followed the pioneer settlement influx of the 1880s.

Steamboats of the Ellensburg and Conconully Railroad and Navigation Company began plying these waters as early as 1888. Soon thereafter, steamboat Captain Alexander Griggs took over the company with the assistance of James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway. He reorganized it as the Columbia and Okanogan Steamboat Company (C&O) in 1893.

For many years thereafter, steamboats of the C&O and its competitors, the North Star Transportation Company, and the People's Transportation Company, thrashed their way along the rapids strewn Columbia hauling fruit, grain, freight and passengers. The C&O, with a clear advantage over competitors due to its ties with the Great Northern Railway, soon took over the competition.

Steamboating on the upper Columbia suffered major setbacks after 1914 when the Great Northern Railway built its branch line from Wenatchee to Oroville, and 1915 when a fire burned four C&O boats at the Wenatchee's Fifth Street Boatyard. By the late 1920s only two boats remained of the upper Columbia fleet. One boat, the 'Bridgeport', remained on the river until 1942. The railroad, and later the highways and automotive transport, took over the region's transportation needs.

There were two major steamboat moorages along Wenatchee's historic riverfront. No physical evidence remains of the Wenatchee Landing at the foot of the Chehalis Street (photo above). However, you are now standing in the 'Sternwheeler Park', at the foot of Fifth Street, which marks the location of the old boatyard where many of these great boats were built and moored.

The 'Nespelem' built in 1917 by C.S. Miller was the last steamboat to be built in Wenatchee. In 1920 its name was changed to the 'Robert Young'.

The construction of the Great Northern Railway through the Wenatchee Valley in 1892 gave additional impetus to the area settlement by creating a transportation link to the outside regions. At the same time, several steamboat companies provided auxiliary service to the railroads by providing transportation to isolated communities on the upper Columbia River."

Marker sponsored by:

Wenatchee Downtown Association

Cascade Graphics

Community Foundation of N.C.W.

Wenatchee Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau

Barbera Congdon

Marker Name: Steamboats on the Upper Columbia Marker Type: City Town name: Wenatchee Placer: Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center Related website: [Web Link] Date marker was placed: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/12/2020 Go-pher-It visited it