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Oneonta (sidewheeler)
Encyclopedia
The Oneonta was a sidewheel steamboat that operated on the Columbia River from 1863 to 1877.
. Typical of the Mississippi-style were the two funnels forward of the pilot house, with sidewheels instead of sternwheels at the preferred design, and the pilot house itself being located near the middle of the boat.
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Oneonta ran on the stretch of the Columbia River between the Cascade Rapids eastward to The Dalles
, where another longer stretch of whitewater. The rapids east of The Dalles were generally known as Celilo Falls
. There were portages around both sets of rapids. Originally these just tracks, but they were gradually replace first railways, first drawn by mules and then by steam engines. Oregon Steam Navigation Company
built Oneonta in an effort to control both the portages and the middle river route connecting them as the only feasible transport line to the gold rushes that were going on in Eastern Oregon and Idaho in the 1860s. When this business tampered off, in 1870, the president of O.S.N., John C. Ainsworth
took Oneonta down through the Cascade Rapids at high water to run on the lower Columbia.
Design
Oneonta was one of the rare examples of a Mississippi-style riverboat built on the Columbia RiverColumbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
. Typical of the Mississippi-style were the two funnels forward of the pilot house, with sidewheels instead of sternwheels at the preferred design, and the pilot house itself being located near the middle of the boat.
Operation
The Dalles, Oregon
The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is the largest city and county seat of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The name of the city comes from the French word dalle The Dalles is...
, where another longer stretch of whitewater. The rapids east of The Dalles were generally known as Celilo Falls
Celilo Falls
Celilo Falls was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington...
. There were portages around both sets of rapids. Originally these just tracks, but they were gradually replace first railways, first drawn by mules and then by steam engines. Oregon Steam Navigation Company
Oregon Steam Navigation Company
The Oregon Steam Navigation Company was an American company incorporated in 1860 in Washington with partners J. S. Ruckle, Henry Olmstead, and J. O. Van Bergen...
built Oneonta in an effort to control both the portages and the middle river route connecting them as the only feasible transport line to the gold rushes that were going on in Eastern Oregon and Idaho in the 1860s. When this business tampered off, in 1870, the president of O.S.N., John C. Ainsworth
John C. Ainsworth
John Commingers Ainsworth was an American pioneer businessman and steamboat owner in Oregon. A native of Ohio, he moved west to mine gold in California before immigrating to Oregon where he piloted steamships and became a founder of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and several banks.-Early...
took Oneonta down through the Cascade Rapids at high water to run on the lower Columbia.