Belle of Oregon City (sidewheeler)

The "Belle of Oregon City", generally referred to as "Belle" was built in 1853, and was the first iron steamboat built on the west coast of North America.

Design and Construction

"Belle" was also the first steamboat to be powered by machinery built entirely in Oregon. All the iron for her her, as well as all the machinery, including the boiler and steam engines, was produced by foundryman Thomas V. Smith in his ironworkers at Oregon City. Capt. William H. Troup built the vessel for two other men, Capt. W.B. Wells and Capt. Richard Williams. Because of her iron hull, she was much more durable than most early Oregon steamboats, lasting until 1869. "Belle" measured convert|90|ft|0|m|lk=on|abbr=on on her keel and convert|96|ft|0|m|lk=on|abbr=on measured over her guards.

Operations

When complete, Williams and Wells put "Belle" on the run on the Willamette River from Portland to Oregon City, with passenger fares $2 each way. Her schedule was to leave the warehouse at the based of Willamette Falls at 7:30 every morning, was over at the Oregon City dock by 8:00 a.m., stopping at Milwaukie at 8:30 a.m., and reached Portland at 9:30 a.m. At 2:00 p.m. "Belle" steamed back downriver, reaching the falls again by 4:00 p.m. (Because of a stretch of shallow water on the Willamette near the mouth of the Clackamas River known as the Clackamas Rapids, only smaller vessels could make the this run.) "Belle" also ran on the Cowlitz River and to Fort Vancouver.

By July 1855, "Belle" was on the route from Portland down the Willamette and then also ran up the Columbia to the lower Cascades, making three runs a week, under Captain Wells, with J.M. Gilman as engineer and N.B. Ingalls as purser. (Ingalls would become one of the longest serving pursers on the Columbia river, serving on many of the famous vessels that ran on the river from the 1850s to his retirement in 1893). Passengers headed up river would disembark at the lower Cascades, travel on the portage road along the north bank, and then board the sidewheeler "Mary" bound upriver to the next head of navigation, The Dalles. Freight charges were high, $50 a ton on cargo from Portland to The Dalles, but "Belle" and "Mary" still could not handle the demand, and other steamers came on the routes, driving rates down to $30 a ton.Timmen, Fritz, "Blow for the Landing -- A Hundred Years of Steam Navigation on the Waters of the West", at 8, 14, and 72-73, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID 1973 ISBN 0-87004-221-1]

Military transport

In the 1850s, the U.S. Army was engaged in forcing the First Nations to cede their dominion over the vast lands of the Oregon and Washington Territories and move on to reservations. The army maintained posts at Fort Vancouver, the Cascades, and The Dalles. In late 1855 orders arrived to move the army's main base up from the Cascades to the Dalles, to be closer to the anticipated area of war operations in the next campaign season. Movement on the river was completely halted by the severe winter in January 1856, when the Columbia froze from bank to bank from the Gorge on down well below the mouth of the Willamette. No river traffic moved anywhere on the river, even down to Astoria. When the river was finally clear enough of ice, "Belle" and another boat, the "Fashion" started moving the Army's equipment up from Fort Vancouver.

On March 26, 1856, a war party of the First Nations attacked the town at Upper Cascades, burned most the buildings, and laid siege to the blockhouse at Fort Cascades, in so doing killing 11 civilians and 3 soldiers. Word soon reached Fort Vancouver, where the detachment was under the command of Lt. (later Genl.) Philip H. Sheridan, who loaded his troopers on "Belle" and steamed upriver to the Cascades. Meanwhile, other troops were coming downriver on "Mary" from The Dalles, and arrived at Upper Cascades. There was some fighting for a day or two around the lower Cascades, during which "Belle" acted as ammunition and supply transport. Due to military blunders the troops were not able to trap the First Nations war party at the Upper Cascades who simply melted back into the forest.

Later years of service

When the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was formed, "Belle" was absorbed into the monopoly and became part of O.S.N.'s near-absolute dominance of Columbia river steam navigation, but was little used by the new company. Her sturdy construction still allowed to outlast most of the steamboats built on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers in the 1850s and 1860s. "Belle" was scrapped in 1869, her hull was dismantled and shipped to China, and her engines went to power a sawmill at Oak Point.

Notes

Further references

* [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F00EFDC143AE033A25756C0A9609C94699FD7CF&oref=slogin "Sheridan's First Fight --The Indian Repulse at the Upper Cascades of the Columbia", "New York Times", June 5, 1888 (reprinted from the Portland "Oregonian" May 29, 1888]
* [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5190 Wilma, David, "Native Americans attack Americans at the Cascades of the Columbia on March 26, 1856", HistoryLink.org Essay 5190 February 07, 2003 (revised April 16, 2007)]
* [http://www.iinet.com/~englishriver/LewisClarkColumbiaRiver/Regions/Places/fort_cascades.html Lewis and Clark's Columbia River - Fort Cascades]