Colonel Wright (sternwheeler) - Top Step On The Giant Staircase

Top Step On The Giant Staircase

Transportation up the Columbia River was like traversing a giant staircase, and the Colonel Wright was the first boat to run on the top step. This of course was the key to her money-making ability. The Columbia was never freely navigable in its natural state. There were many barriers of shallow water and rapids, the most important of which for navigation purposes were the Cascades of the Columbia in the Columbia Gorge, followed by a navigable run to the east known as the "middle Columbia" which terminated at The Dalles. A long portage there began around a series of rapids, generally known by the name of the most important one, which was Celilo Falls. The portage route ended at Celilo, Oregon where the "upper Columbia" began. Steamboats could run from Celilo to Wallula where a stage line, and later a railroad ran to Walla Walla, then the principal settlement in the Inland Empire. It was this, the upper step of the river, on which the Colonel Wright enjoyed a monopoly for a short time as the sole steamboat on the river.

Downriver transport could be quite fast for the day. A traveler bound from Walla Walla would take the stage to Wallula, board the Colonel Wright or another steamer, then head downriver to Celilo. After a bumpy ride over the portage, the traveler would arrive at The Dalles where an overnight stay would be necessary at one of the hotels. The next morning the traveler would board a steamboat on the middle river, perhaps the Oneonta, for a morning run down to the Upper Cascades. There again the traveler disembarked, usually on the favored north side, and rode on the portage railway to the landing at the Lower Cascades. There, a steamer, possibly the Wilson G. Hunt, then ran downriver to Portland, which the traveler reached some thirty hours after leaving Walla Walla, a feat which was considered remarkable at that time. The genius of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was to control all the boats on all the steps of the staircase, and the portages too, thus achieving a monopoly on transport in the days before there were roads or railways capable of mounting any competition. The Wright was simply superb at making money, earning as much as $2,500 a trip in passenger fares alone.