Notes
For many decades riverboats provided a key link between Hood River and the rest of the world. They hauled freight and people between the numerous communities along the Columbia River. Shallow draft sternwheelers could navigate the river's shoals and stop at any sandy bank along the river. This cyanotype of the "Dalles City" offers a glimpse back to the world before the interstate or the Columbia River Highway.
Category: [Downtown Hood River]
Tags: 1900s ship sternwheeler
Comments
I like the cyanotypes.
I was just reading in some HR history that HR was not an easy place for sternwheelers to stop.
I don't know if HR ever had a permanent dock during the sternwheeler days. Row boats often times had to be used.
So yes, I bet a shallow draft was an asset for a Hood River landing.
Especially for the ladies in those cumbersome dresses.
l.e. on 29th September 2011 @ 7:14am
interesting cutouts on the forw'rd portion of the hull. notice the elk antler on the mast!
spinsur on 29th September 2011 @ 7:18am
The boats at one time used to tie up in the cottonwoods along the river. Some sort of dock/ramp had to have been built out. My father related his first trip to Hood River to me, a trip with a load of peaches from the family Pine Grove farm, down the old East Side Road to the Bailey Gaetzer and it was tied up along the cottonwood trees on the edge of the river. He said that was his first memory of going to town.
Charlott on 29th September 2011 @ 7:24am
Dalles City was built by The Dalles and Portland Navigation Company in Portland in 1891. She was one of the first four boats through Cascade Locks when it opened on November 5, 1896. Up to that time the boat had been confined below Cascade Locks. Those locks opened up an entirely new world to navigation on the Columbia, as did the canal between The Dalles and Celilo Falls.
Charlott on 29th September 2011 @ 7:37am
We have several photographs of sternwheelers at a landing north of the railroad station, in the Hood River delta, amongst the Cottonwoods as Charlott described. There was a boathouse out there too. I'll be posting a photo from the 1894 flood showing a sternwheeler nudging right up against the tracks across from the station.
Arthur on 29th September 2011 @ 7:51am
Wonderful image! For those interested in sternwheelers on the Columbia and Snake Rivers, I'd like to offer a shameless plug for some of our Washington Rural Heritage collections at the Washington State Library.
Ross Fuqua on 29th September 2011 @ 2:48pm
In Fritz Timmen's book "Blow For The Landing" he says, the Dalles City was a workhorse and made money for her company. She wasn't elegant nor extremely fast but kept her schedules, carrying sacks of grain, barrels of apples, bolts of yard goods and assorted merchandise for the towns at which she called, along with passengers. The Dalles City had thirty seven landings on her schedule, sashaying back and forth across the river.
l.e. on 29th September 2011 @ 6:56pm
Ross....as a fellow Washingtonian, I looked up Washington Rural Heritage. It sounds like you and Arthur have a similar goal. Preserving history by creating digital collections and sharing it with a wide audience.
Thank you.
l.e. on 29th September 2011 @ 7:14pm
Ross, thanks for the mention of your historic photos project...I appreciate it!
Scott Cook on 30th September 2011 @ 10:34am
Scott and I.e., glad you're enjoying Washington Rural Heritage collections, too. Please help spread the word. We're very impressed with Arthur's approach to presenting Hood River images on this blog -- a great inspiration as we start to consider our own site's re-design.
For kicks, search our Garfield (WA) County collection for "tramway" -- I'm fascinated by the early 20th century ingenuity there....
Ross Fuqua on 10th October 2011 @ 8:54am