Steamboats of the Cowlitz River
Encyclopedia
Cowlitz River
The Cowlitz River is a river in the state of Washington in the United States, a tributary of the Columbia River. Its tributaries drain a large region including the slopes of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount St. Helens....
flows into the Columbia River
Columbia 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...
at a point 68 miles from the Columbia's mouth, in southwestern Washington, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The head of navigation, Cowlitz Landing, was about 35 east of the meeting of the Clackamas with the Columbia. Early steamboat operations on the Cowlitz were haphazard from 1858 to 1864. By the later date, the monopoly 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...
had taken over, driving competitors out with a price war. Once O.S.N. had crushed all its competitors, the quality of service fell off. Residents of the area brought in Captain Joseph Kellogg, his brother and two sons to organize a new service on the Cowlitz. Kellogg did so with the Toledo. The Kelloggs established a new town at Cowlitz Landing, and named it Toledo
Toledo, Washington
Toledo is a city in Lewis County, Washington, United States. The population was 725 at the 2010 census.-History:Toledo was officially incorporated on October 10, 1892. Toledo was named by Celeste Rochon after a pioneer side wheel paddle steamer operated by Captain Oren Kellogg of the Kellogg...
after their sternwheeler.
Other boats eventually placed on the Cowlitz run were Joseph Kellogg, Northwest, and Chester. Chester in particular, launched in 1897, was described as "the ultimate in shallow-draft steamboating. She worked upstream from Kelso
Kelso, Washington
Kelso is a city in southwest Washington State, United States, and is the county seat of Cowlitz County. At the 2010 census, the population was 11,925. Kelso is part of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 102,410. Kelso shares its long western border...
, where she connected with larger river boats, and could run in water only a foot deep. There wasn't a need for docks, customers just drove their wagons into the river to load or unload. The design was widely copied for use in Alaska and the Yukon for shallow-draft boats in the gold rush.
Railroad and highway competition ended steamboat service on the Cowlitz in 1918.