The Cascades Railroad ran for about on the north bank of the Columbia River around the

Cascades Rapids The Cascades Rapids (sometimes called Cascade Falls or Cascades of the Columbia) were an area of rapids along North America's Columbia River, between the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. Through a stretch approximately wide, the river ...

. The owner was the

Oregon Steam Navigation Company The Oregon Steam Navigation Company (O.S.N.) was an American company incorporated in 1860 in Washington with partners J. S. Ruckle, Henry Olmstead, and J. O. Van Bergen. It was incorporated in Washington because of a lack of corporate laws in ...

. The railroad operated as a

portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...

around the rapids.

History

Francis A. Chenoweth Francis A. Chenoweth (May 24, 1819 – November 29, 1899) was an American lawyer and politician in the Pacific Northwest. A native of Ohio, he lived in Iowa and Wisconsin before immigrating to the Oregon Territory. There he served in the legislat ...

built a wooden tramway using mules on the north bank of the river in 1851. He sold the tram way to Daniel and Putnam Bradford who incorporated it as the Cascades Railroad. The

Great Flood of 1862 The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862. It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in ...

(which began in November 1861) swept away the tramway. It was rebuilt as railroad by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and returned to operation with two steam locomotives named "ANN" and "BETSY" on April 20, 1863. The railroad was

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

from 1860 to 1880, standard gauge from 1880 to 1883, and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller struc ...

from 1883 until the close of operations. One of its five small locomotives, No. 7, was sold in 1900 to the

Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company The Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company operated a narrow gauge railroad that ran for over forty years from the bar of the Columbia River up the Long Beach Peninsula to Nahcotta, Washington, on Willapa Bay. The line ran entirely in Pacific ...

.Robertson, at 195, 222

Notes

3 ft gauge railways in the United States Defunct Washington (state) railroads Portages in the United States 5 ft gauge railways in the United States {{Washington-transport-stub

History

See also

Notes