The history of steamboats on the Oregon Coast begins in the late 19th century. Before the development of modern road and rail networks, transportation on the coast of Oregon was largely water-borne. This article focuses on inland steamboats and similar craft operating in, from south to north on the coast: Rogue River, Coquille River, Coos Bay, Umpqua River, Siuslaw Bay, Yaquina Bay, Siletz River, and Tillamook Bay. The boats were all very small, nothing like the big sternwheelers and propeller boats that ran on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

. There were many of them, however, and they came to be known as the "mosquito fleet."

Routes and operations

Rogue River

The Rogue River meets the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Gold Beach Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was lo ...

, and flows all the way from the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. R. D. Hume was a pioneering businessman at Wedderburn and Gold Beach, then known as Ellensburg. By 1881, he had established a fish cannery and built a steam schooner, '' Mary D. Hume'', to support the cannery operation. Hume was still conducting steamboat operations on the Rogue River in 1901, and in that year, Capt. E.D. Burns built the sternwheel steamboat ''Rogue River'' in Portland, and brought her down the coast to compete against Hume's operation. ''Mary D. Hume'' passed through several owners and was still in operation as late as 1939, when she was the oldest commercial vessel in service in the Pacific Northwest. In November 1902, Burns succeeded in reaching deep inland on the Rogue to Agness, however, in returning to Gold Beach, on November 16, 1902 the boat struck a rock at Boiler Rapids, where, at least in 1966, her boiler was reported to be still visible. This was the only known effort to take a conventional vessel so far up the Rogue River. In 1903 the gasoline-powered ''Success'' was built at ''Gold Beach'' for the Rogue River service. R.D. Hume continued his interest in shipping out of the Rogue River, commissioning the construction in 1908 of two small gasoline-powered schooners, ''Enterprise'' (22 tons) and ''Osprey'' (43 tons) from Ellingson in Coquille. Hume died by 1912, as his estate is reported to have sold ''Enterprise'' and ''Osprey'' to someone from Portland.Newell, Gordon R., ed., ''H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest'', at 2, 61, 70, 83, 92, 119, 147-49, 162, 190, 202, 207, 244, 268, 311, 340, 343-44, 363, and 554, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966

Coquille River

The Coquille River runs inland from Bandon. Before the era of railroads and later automobiles, the Coquille River was the major transportation route from Bandon to Coquille and Myrtle Point in southern Coos County.

Coos Bay

Coos Bay Coos Bay is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon state lines. The Coos Bay watershed covers an area of abou ...

is a large and mostly shallow harbor on Oregon's southwest coast, to the north of the Coquille River valley. It is the major harbor on the west coast of the United States between San Francisco and the mouth of the Columbia River. Two steamboat captains from the

began steamboat operations on Coos Bay in 1873. Inland riverboats were used to navigate the bay and the several rivers flow that flow into it. A mule-hauled portage was built between a shallow southern arm of Coos Bay and the Beaver Slough, a shallow north-extending branch of the Coquille River, in 1869; it was replaced in 1874 with a steam portage railroad. This connection established a convenient link between the steamboat operations of Coos Bay and those on the Coquille. Numerous steamboats were built over the ensuing decades. In 1912, a number of steamboats were wrecked, by collision, fire and grounding on the sandbar at the mouth of the bay.

Umpqua River

The

Umpqua River The Umpqua River ( ) on the Pacific coast of Oregon in the United States is approximately long. One of the principal rivers of the Oregon Coast and known for bass and shad, the river drains an expansive network of valleys in the mountains west ...

runs from

Reedsport Reedsport is a city in Douglas County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,310. History Reedsport was established on the estuary of the Umpqua River on January 7, 1852. It was named for a local settler, Alfred ...

up through Douglas County. Gardiner is a town near the mouth of the Umpqua where several river steamers were built. One of the Umpqua River's several branches eventually reaches Roseburg, although the head of navigation was Scottsburg. Captain Godfrey Seymour began steamboat operations on the Umpqua River with ''Raftsman'', later adding ''Washington'', ''Swan'', and ''Enterprise''. ''Swan'' was unique as the only steamboat to ever ascend as far as Roseburg on the Umpqua. This was in 1870, when the merchants of Gardiner were anxious to demonstrate the navigability of this river. Roseburg is 85 miles above the mouth of the river, and it took Swan 11 days to get there. This was sufficient to persuade Congress to allocate $70,000 for channel clearance of the Umpqua, even though no other steamboat ever again ran up to Roseburg.Timmen, Fritz, ''Blow for the Landing'', at 189, 200-207, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID 1972 In 1906, the propeller steamer ''Juno'' (32 tons) was built at Marshfield and placed on the Umpqua River service by the Umpqua River Steam Navigation Company.
Scottsburg landing on Umpqua River, circa 1900, showing passengers and a number of small vessels

Siuslaw Bay and River

Siuslaw Bay is yet another large shallow bay on the Oregon coast, with its entrance about 24 miles north of the mouth of the Umpqua River. The

Siuslaw River The Siuslaw River ( ) is a river, about long, that flows to the Pacific Ocean coast of Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of about in the Central Oregon Coast Range southwest of the Willamette Valley and north of the watershed of th ...

widens into the bay, which meets the ocean near the town of

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. In 1890 or thereabouts, the ''Moonlight'' was placed in service on Siuslaw Bay and its various back channels.
waterfront of Florence, Oregon, on Suislaw Bay, 1927

Yaquina Bay

Yaquina Bay Yaquina Bay ( ) is a coastal estuarine community found in Newport, Oregon, United States. Yaquina Bay is a semi-enclosed body of water, approximately 8 km² (3.2 mi²) in area, with free connection to the Pacific Ocean, but also diluted ...

, like Coos Bay, is another shallow coastal bay on the Oregon Coast. The principal town on Yaquina Bay is Newport. Once the Oregon Pacific Railroad reached Toledo, on the east end of Yaquina Bay, tourists started coming to the bay from the Willamette Valley. The roads were bad or nonexistent at the time, so the only way to the seaside hotels at Newport was to cross the Yaquina Bay by steamer. Propeller steamboats did most of this service, however in 1872, the sidewheeler ''Oneatta'' was launched at

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

, ran on the bay for a while and then was transferred to the Columbia River, and in 1882, to Humboldt Bay.Newell, Gordon, and Williamson, Joe, ''Pacific Steamboats'', at 47, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1958, state that Oneatta was transferred to Humboldt Bay and don't mention service on the Columbia River Later, ''Rebecca C.'' and ''Cleveland'' also ran on Yaquina Bay.

Siletz River

The

Siletz River The Siletz River flows about to the Pacific Ocean through coastal mountains in the U.S. state of Oregon. Formed by the confluence of its north and south forks near Valsetz in Polk County, it winds through the Central Oregon Coast Range. The ri ...

runs into the Pacific about 30 miles north of Yaquina Bay, near the town of Taft now part of Lincoln City. The first salmon cannery was established on the Siletz River in 1896 by Daniel Kern, a Portlander. This was Kerns Bros. Packing Co., on the north side of the river. Later that same year the post office of Kernville was established in the same location, where a small town later developed. Kern brought in the small steamer ''Tonquin'', 64' long, built at Portland, to act as a cannery tender and supply vessel. Kern later sold his cannery to Elmore Packing, of Astoria, and went into the marine construction business. Much later, the Siletz Navigation Company operated on the Siletz, at least in the early 1920s. In 1923, ''Siletz'' (93 tons), described as a "strongly built diesel freighter" was launched at Kernville, Oregon, to serve local routes from the Siletz river entrance. This boat was probably more of an ocean-going vessel than the typical mosquito fleet craft, as she was sold to a Hawaii firm and voyaged there herself in 19 days without mishap.

Tillamook Bay

Tillamook Bay Tillamook Bay is a small inlet of the Pacific Ocean, approximately 6 mi (10 km) long and 2 mi (3 km) wide, on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located just north of Cape Meares in western Tillamook Count ...

was a large very shallow bay on the northern part of the Oregon Coast. In 1911, the yacht ''Bay Ocean'' was built in Portland to provide service from Portland to Tillamook Bay for a beach resort. ''Bay Ocean'' was designed by R.A. Ballin for the T.B. Potter real estate company, which was developing the (eventually ill-fated) resort at Bay Ocean Spit on Tillamook Bay. ''Bay Ocean'' was the largest motor passenger vessel built to that date on the Pacific Coast. She was long (150') and narrow (18' beam), with a clipper bow and bowsprit. She had three gasoline engines connected to a single shaft. She could accommodate 50 passengers on the Portland-Tillamook route but had difficulty on the run and only served in the summer. She was called up by the navy to function as a patrol boat in the First World War. After the war, ''Bay Ocean'' was sold to Crowley Launch and Tug Co., of San Francisco.
cannery tender ''Susan E. Elmore'' entering Tillamook Baysteamers ''Harrison'' and ''Susan E. Elmore'' at dock in Tillamook

Last operations

Mosquito fleet operations in the Coos Bay area and Coquille River valley continued up into the 1930s, due to the lack of good roads and other more modern transportation in these areas. As possibly the extreme example, the small (14 tons) gasoline-propeller ''Welcome'', built 1919, was on the run up the

Coos River The Coos River flows for about into Coos Bay along the Pacific coast of southwest Oregon in the United States. Formed by the confluence of its major tributaries, the South Fork Coos River and the Millicoma River, it drains an important timber-pro ...

from Marshfield to Allegany until 1948.

Steamboat graveyards

When steamboat service ended on the Coquille, at least three steamers, ''Myrtle'', ''Telegraph'', and ''Dora'' were all beached on the river near Bandon.Marshall, Don, ''Oregon Shipwrecks'', at 45,97 and 220, Binford & Mort, Portland, OR 1984 The ''Mary D. Hume'', built in 1881, is still largely intact, lying on the shore at Gold Beach, Oregon. The wreck itself is on the National Register of Historic Places. The steam ferry ''Roosevelt'', which used to run on Coos Bay, was photographed abandoned near Marshfield in 1941.
wreck of ''Roosevelt'', steam ferry, near Marshfield

List of vessels

A large number of boats of all types were built on these waters, powered by various means, including steam, gasoline, and diesel engines. This index will attempt to track only vessels over 30 tons built before 1920, with exceptions where a vessel appears to be of more interest, due to an available on-line image or otherwise.

Notes and references

Notes

General references

* Newell, Gordon R., ed. ''H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest'', Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966

External links

Nautical Charts

Coast Survey chart (no. 18568) of Tillamook BayCoast Survey chart (no.18583) of Siuslaw River

Photographs

Wreck of the ''Mary D. Hume'', at low tideCurry County scenic images includes photo of the wreck of the ''Mary D. Hume''
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Coos Art Museum

Many good photographs of steamboats and small craft on Coos Bay and the Coquille River.

Historic images of Oregon Coast steamboats from Salem Public Library

''Alert'' at Allegany Landing on Millicoma River in Coos County

''Eva'' meeting the Drain stage, at wharf boat at Scottsburg on the Umpqua Riversteam launch ''Margaretta'', Tillamook, Oregon, circa 1900
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steamboats Of The Oregon Coast Oregon Coast Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

History of the West Coast of the United States