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Salem's Steamboats |
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For the first fifty years of Salem's life, as
it grew from frontier village to city, the Willamette River
was its highway and steamboats carried the traffic. The obvious
use of the steamboat was to bring in people and cargo, but as
on any highway, there was not only commerce, but drama.
In 1861, when Salem was just beginning to be marked on maps,
it was nearly washed away by flooded Willamette. The steamer
Onward rescued forty persons at the mouth of Pringle Creek.
Only four years later, commerce had gained an important foothold
on the river as steamboats transported flour from the Willamette
Flouring Mill at Front Street. The boat dock just north was
always busy as inland farm crops were loaded for export. By
1890 the steamboats at the foot of Trade Street were graced
by affectionate names such as Ramona, Gypsy, and
Ruth.
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, steamboats were
enjoying the attention of Salem citizens as they took excursions
to Albany and Corvallis. In 1885, a gingerbread-decorated City
of Salem entertained riders with music from the local Masonic
Band.
By the turn of the century, Salem was moving east, away from
the river as the railroad supplied the transportation need of
the farm co-ops and fruit processors. Sturdy, shallow draft
sternwheelers, such as the Julius, served the Spaulding Logging
Company as late as 1908. But by the time The Great War was won
ten years later, the railway carried the commerce and the automobile
was becoming the accepted way for families to travel for business
and pleasure in the Capitol City.
In 1924, drifting ice caught and damaged the Relief from Portland
at the foot of Court Street. It was a sign of the perilous times
for commerce by water: the local Salem Navigation Company turned
to trucks in mid-1930s. The higher costs of stevedores and heavy
truck traffic in the valley during the Depression almost stopped
river traffic.
Harvey Fox, a retired local businessman, remembers when, as
a youngster selling newspapers from his corner at Court and
Commercial, he would listen for the steamboat signal at three
o'clock in the afternoon twice a week. It announced the Wednesday
or Friday arrival of cargo from Portland. Harvey would rush
down to the dock to sell his papers at 5 cents each. He also
fondly recalls the delicious cinnamon bun he would purchase
from the ship's bakery.
Today an excursion stern-wheeler is the last vestige of what
was once a vital link in Salem's commercial life: steamboat
traffic on the Willamette.
Researched and written by Virginia Green
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Altona sternwheel boat on
Willamette River,coming to Salem , 1898.
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"Grey Eagle" sternwheeler
"towing boat" at dock on the Willamette River in
Salem in 1913.
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The "Oregona"
sternwheeler docked at the O. R. & N. Steam Boat Dock
on the Willamette River.
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A 1966 painting of the US
Mail ship Wallamet steaming up the river near Salem, Oregon.
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1910. The stern-wheelers
"Ruth" (on the left) and "Oregona" (on
the right) at the Willamette River landing at Champoeg, Oregon.
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T his 1890 Cronise photo shows the sternwheeler
"City of Salem" at dock with a large crowd of people
both on it and at the boat landing.
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