The ''Oneonta'' was a sidewheel steamboat that operated on the Columbia River from 1863 to 1877.

Design

''Oneonta'' was one of the rare examples of a Mississippi-style riverboat built on the

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

. 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

''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 Celilo Falls (; , meaning "echo of falling water" or "sound of water upon the rocks," in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Range, Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border bet ...

. There were portages around both sets of rapids. Originally these were just tracks, but they were gradually replaced by railways, first drawn by mules and then by steam engines.

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 ...

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 Commingers Ainsworth (June 6, 1822 – December 30, 1893) 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 ...

took ''Oneonta'' down through the Cascade Rapids at high water to run on the lower Columbia.

Disposition

''Oneonta'' was taken out of service in 1877 and served as barge until being abandoned in 1880.

Notes

Passenger ships of the United States Steamboats of the Columbia River Steamboats of Oregon 1863 ships Oregon Steam Navigation Company {{ship-stub