The Oregon Steam Navigation Company (O.S.N.) was an American company incorporated in 1860 in Washington with partners J. S. Ruckle,

Henry Olmstead Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainme ...

, and

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. It was incorporated in Washington because of a lack of corporate laws in Oregon, though it paid Oregon taxes. The company operated steamships between

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and ports along 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 ...

at Astoria, Portland and The Dalles, serving the lumber and salmon fishing industries.Laubaugh, Glenn
The Oregon Steam Navigation Company and its Related Portage Tramways
Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society A railroad was built to serve the steamship industry.

Formation of the monopoly

The company was incorporated on December 29, 1860, at

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...

, with 22 shareholders. Principal shareholders included D. F. Bradford (one of the owners of the north bank portage railway at the Cascades), Jacob Kamm, Harrison Olmstead, Simeon G. Reed, R. R. Thompson, and steamboat captains John C. Ainsworth and L. W. Coe. The company then gained control over most of the boats on the Columbia and

Snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

rivers. Timmen described the Oregon Steam Navigation Company as "the many-tentacled monopoly of river transportation." From 1858 to 1863, the Oregon Portage Railroad operated 4.5 miles of track between Bonneville and

Cascade Cascade, or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science * Air shower (physics), a cascade (particle shower) of subatomic particles and ionized nuclei ** Particle shower, a cascade of secondary particles produced as the result of a high ...

. The railroad hauled primarily military and immigrant traffic. In 1862, the railroad was sold to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company for $155,000. Soon afterwards, the company acquired most of the steamboats on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company purchased the Oregon Steam Navigation Company in 1879. * On the lower Columbia, the company's boats included ''Senorita'', ''Fashion'' (ex-''James P. Flint''), ''Julia'' (''Barclay''), ''Belle'' (''of Oregon City''), ''Mountain Buck'', and ''Carrie Ladd''. * On the middle Columbia, boats were ''Mary'', ''Hassaloe'', ''Wasco'', and ''Idaho''. * On the upper Columbia, the company ran the ''Tenino'' and the ''Colonel Wright''.Timmen, Franz: ''Blow for the Landing, A Hundred Years of Steam Navigation on the Waters of the West'', at 14, 17, and 27, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID, 1973

Competitors bought off

In 1862, river transport concerns not involved with the Oregon Steam Navigation Company formed the

People's Transportation Company The People's Transportation Company operated steamboats on the Willamette River and its tributaries, the Yamhill River, Yamhill and Tualatin River, Tualatin rivers, in the State of Oregon from 1862 to 1871. For a brief time this company operated ...

. The new competitor put the ''E.D. Baker'' on the lower Columbia, the ''Iris'' on the middle, and the ''Kiyus'' on the upper Cascades.Affleck, Edward L., ''A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska'', at 43, Alexander Nicholls Press, Vancouver, BC (2000) These boats posed serious competition to the monopoly, so much so that in about 1864, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company paid its rival $10,000 a year to confine its operations to the

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. Flowing northward ...

. Oregon Steam Navigation Company also picked up People's Transportation's boats ''Iris'' and ''Kiyus'', in exchange for three OSN boats on the Willamette River, ''Onward'', ''Rival'', and ''Surprise''.

Expansion of fleet

Traffic increased in the early 1860s, so in 1863 and 1864, OSN added the ''Nez Perce Chief'', the ''Webfoot'', the ''Owyhee'' and the ''Yakima'', all built at Celilo on the upper Columbia, and the Mississippi-style side-wheeler ''Oneonta'' on the middle river. OSN also purchased the side-wheeler ''New World'' to work the lower Columbia. By 1878, OSN had added to its fleet the sternwheelers ''Harvest Queen'', ''John Gates'', ''Spokane'', '' Annie Faxon'', ''Mountain Queen'', ''R.R. Thompson'', and '' Wide West''.

Struggle for the portages

Control of the portages was critical to control of the river. OSN controlled all the portages, including both the north and the south portage railways around the Cascades (which had once been in competition with each other) as well as a portage system that had been built around Celilo Falls by one Orlando Humason. In 1863, the company replaced the mule-drawn portage railway on the north side of the Cascades with a steam locomotive. The company also built a steam railway from the Dalles around Celilo Falls, which opened on April 23, 1863 and cost $1 million to build.
Cascade Portage and railroad, Washington side, 1867Oregon "Pony," first steam engine in Oregon, used on portage railroad

Competition

The

was organized in 1862 to compete with the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The company then began a rate war with the O.S.N. People's Transportation was so successful that O.S.N. bought them off with an agreement to pay them $10,000 a year for ten years if People's Transportation would restrict its operations to the

References

External links

John Gates, chief engineer for Oregon Steam Navigation Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Steam Navigation Company Steamboats of the Columbia River Steamboats of the Willamette River Defunct transportation companies of the United States Columbia River American companies established in 1860 American companies disestablished in 1879 1860 establishments in Oregon Defunct companies based in Oregon Transportation companies based in Oregon