The Willamette Steam Navigation Company (W.S.N.) was an American company incorporated

Incorporation (business)

Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...

 in October 1865 to challenge the monopoly on Willamette River

Willamette River

The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...

 inland steam navigation that the People's Transportation Company was attempting to establish.

Officers of W.S.N. were D. W. Burnside, president, Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 co-founder Asa L. Lovejoy

Asa Lovejoy

Asa Lawrence Lovejoy was an American pioneer and politician in the region that would become the U.S. state of Oregon. He is best remembered as a founder of the city of Portland, Oregon...

 (1808-1882), vice-president, and J. T. Apperson, secretary. Apperson also served as captain on one of their boats. The steamers Active and Alert were constructed, and they controlled the Echo

Echo (sternwheeler 1865)

Echo was a sternwheel steamboat that operated on the Willamette River from about 1865 to 1873 and was one of the first steamboats to carry what was then considered a large cargo out of Eugene, Oregon.- Construction :...

 and one or two others. Alert was put on the Portland to Oregon City

Oregon City, Oregon

Oregon City was the first city in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains to be incorporated. It is the county seat of Clackamas County, Oregon...

 run, and Active and Echo worked above Willamette Falls

Willamette Falls

The Willamette Falls is a natural waterfall on the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn, Oregon, in the United States. It is the largest waterfall in the Pacific Northwest and the eighteenth largest in the world by water volume. Horseshoe in shape, it is wide and high with a flow...

 from Canemah (now Oregon City)

Canemah, Oregon

Canemah was an early settlement in the U.S. state of Oregon located near Willamette Falls on the Willamette River. It is now a district within Oregon City.-Location:...

 to Corvallis

Corvallis, Oregon

Corvallis is a city located in central western Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Benton County and the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 54,462....

.

Like previous challengers to the monopoly, the Willamette Steam Navigation Company soon sold out to the People's Transportation Company in March 1866.