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Engine, Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Engine 5515.
Train photographed near Rock Cove, Stevenson, Washington.
Image taken June 19, 2005.
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Railroads and the Columbia River ...
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Railroads and the Columbia River go together hand-in-hand. As the railroads developed so did the population, commerce, and history of the Columbia River. This process began in 1851.
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1851 ... First Railroad in the Columbia Gorge ...
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The first railroad was built in the Columbia River Gorge in 1851, 45 years after Lewis and Clark. The railroad was a wooden-rail portage road and the "cars" were four-wheeled platforms pulled by donkeys. These tramways were designed to get folks around the Cascade Rapids. The cars and freight were pulled by donkeys.
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"...
In 1851, Hardin (or Justin) Chenowith built a railroad consisting of one wagon on wood rails pulled by a single mule. Chenowith charged 75 cents for every hundred pounds of freight. He added more mules and cars (the first railroad in the future Washington state) and sold it to the Bradford family, which expanded it further and built a hotel. By 1854, Upper Cascades included a store, a hotel, a blacksmith forge, and corrals for stock. ..."
["HistoryLink.org" website, 2006]
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"...
The first railroad of any kind built in Oregon was a wooden tramway
constructed on the north side of the Columbia River around the Cascades in
1850 by F.A. Chenoweth. This was rebuilt in 1856 by P.F. Bradford. In
1862, the portage road from The Dalles to Celilo was built to cheapen
transportation to the newly discovered mines in Idaho. ..."
[J.B. Horner, 1919, Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature, p.193]
In 1852 emigrant Parthenia Blank described the route:
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"... a railroad 3 miles long made of scantling [timber frame] and plank without iron. On this runs a small car propelled by a mule attached by a long rope for an engine and a pair of thrills [shafts on each side of the mule] between which the engineer stations himself and walks and guides the car. On this the charge is 75 cts. per cwt. but takes no passengers. At the end of the railroad the goods have to be let down perpendicularly some 150 feet [others estimate 50 feet] to the river from whence they are taken on a boat to the steamboat landing about 3 miles more.
..."
[passage courtesy Oregon Historical Society website, 2005, embedded comments theirs]
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Information sign for the North Bank Road.
Caption for the left image reads: "Washington boasts the river's first railraod, which was built in 1851. A wooden cart on wooden rails and pulled by mules, it assisted early settlers around the Columbia's rapids. Despite this early start, modern locomotives were a long time coming."
Caption for the right image reads:
"In a driving rain on March 11, 1908, delighted locals joined dignitaries here at Sheridan's Point to celebrate completion of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway between Pasco and Vancouver."
Image taken June 29, 2005.
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1855 ... Bradford Brothers (north side) ...
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In History Of The Pacific Northwest Oregon and Washington, published in 1889:
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"... The rush of miners to the Colville diggings in 1855, with the
corresponding growth of the Cascades and The Dalles as distributing points
and centers of trade, and also as keys to Eastern Oregon and Washington,
had necessitated not only open communication across the portage between
the Cascades of the Columbia, but had invited the supplying of improved
facilities for travel, and the transportation of merchandise. The growing
trade at The Dalles, the increased number of troops concentrated at that
point, the presence of volunteers and regulars in the Yakima and Walla
Walla country, and the necessary transportation of munitions of war and
supplies for troops, had induced the putting on of steamers to ply between
Portland and the Lower Cascades, as also upon the Columbia river above the
Upper Cascades, running from thence to The Dalles. Such lines established,
the trans-shipment of merchandise, and its conveyance over the portage,
required appliances for handling and transportation. For these objects,
Daniel F. Bradford, and Putnam his brother, late in the fall of 1855,
commenced the construction of a tramway between the Upper and Lower
Cascades, five miles in length, which was well-nigh completed in the early
spring of 1856. During the previous winter (1855-56), a strong guard had
been on duty at the blockhouse located a mile below the Upper Cascades
landing, which had been erected by Major Rains in the fall of 1855; and
from the name of its builder it had been uniformly but unofficially called
Fort Rains.
..."
The 1860 Washington Territory cadastral survey map (tax survey) for T2N R7E, shows "Bradford's Railroad" which followed the Washington shoreline. It began at the location of today's
Ashes Lake (just upstream of "U.S. Garrison", known today as Fort Lugenbeel) and ended
just upstream of the location of today's Fort Rains Fort Rains was not shown on map. Also shown on the map is the "U.S. Military Road", going between the locations of Fort Lugenbeel and Fort Cascades (located on Hamilton Island).
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1855 ... Oregon Portage around the Cascade Rapids (south side) ...
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Between 1855 and 1862 Joseph Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead operated a portage railroad on the Oregon side of the Columbia River in the Cascade Locks area. Horse-drawn carts transported goods and people around the Cascade Rapids. Their competition on the north side was the portage railroad of the Bradford Brothers.
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1862 ... Oregon Pony (south side) ...
The Oregon Pony was the first steam engine in the Pacific Northwest and operated on the tramway built on the Oregon side of the Columbia River to portage around the Cascade Rapids.
In 1862 Captain John C. Ainsworth was in San Francisco and purchased rails and a small locomotive, the Oregon Pony, for shipment to the Gorge. Within a few months, workers transformed the old cart-rail system of Ruckel and Olmstead into Oregon's first railroad line - a five-mile route from Tanner Creek to the head of the Cascade Rapids.
[More]
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Oregon Pony, South Support, Bridge of the Gods Mural, Cascade Locks, Oregon.
Image taken May 13, 2005.
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Glass enclosure, Oregon Pony, at Cascade Locks Marine Park, Oregon.
Image taken September 16, 2006.
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1863 ... Cascade Portage Railroad (north side) ...
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The Cascade Portage Railroad covered six miles from the Lower Landing on Hamilton Island to the Upper Landing just downstream from
Stevenson, Washington, near Ashes Lake. The first steam engine (named "Ann") began operating on the tracks on April 20, 1863. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company (see below) operated the railway until 1907, until competition from the Cascade Canal and Locks, and the Transcontinental Railroad on the Oregon shore, made the railway obsolete. Part of the tracks were then used by Frank Warren for his
cannery tramway.
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Cascade Portage Railroad, Fort Cascades Historic Site.
Image taken April 2, 2005.
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Passage through the Gorge, 1888 ...
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Excerpt from:
The Deseret News, July 11, 1888, article written by C.R. Savage for the newspaper, courtesy Harold B. Lee Library online archives, Brigham Young University. The Deseret News was the first newspaper published in the Utah Territory, just three years after the Mormon pioneers settled the Great Salt Lake valley, with the first issue being June 15, 1850.
DOING THE WEST FOR THE PICTURESQUE.
A Photographer's Ramble on the Oregon Short Line. -- Oregon Railway and
navigation Co. -- Northern Pacific. -- Oregon and California Railway. --
And Home by the Central.
"...
Night closes in upon us as we cross the stretch of country between
Pendleton and the lower part of the Columbia River. We first reach this
western wonder at Umatilla, and skirt it down to Portland. But many
objects of surpassing beauty are passed while you are sleeping. If the
object of the tourist is to see the true grandeur of the mightly Columbia,
I would earnestly advise stopping off at Dalles and taking a ride down to
Portland on the steamboat. You can go direct to the boat from the track.
Having travelled both routes I give mypreference to the river route, and
will endeavor to detail the objects of interest on the down trip.
The steamer leaves at the tick of the clock in the morning.
THE "HARVEST QUEEN" is a beautiful boat with superb appointments, roomy,
clean and commodious. As we leave the wharf we seem to
glide without effort at a high rate of speed, passing in rapid succession
the lava bluffs on each side of the river, (it is high water in June).
The whole volume of drainage from the plains of western Washington
Territory and British Columbia pass down and form the boundary line of
Oregon, and Washington Territory. Oregon is on our left and Washington on
our right.
...
At Hood River on a clear day a grand view of Mount Hood can be obtained.
Mount Adams is also seen from this point; the former is in Oregon, the
latter in Washington.
At different points the line of the railroad can be seen. Miles upon
miles of trestle work has been constructed to get a road through by the
Oregon Railway and navigation Company. The trains of the Northern Pacific
and the Union Pacific all pass over this line.
...
At Cascade Locks we leave our harvest queen. A little narrow guage
railroad makes the portage of the cascades of the Columbia. An old block
house still stands with port holes that was once the defensive fort of the
volunteers -- and here our General Sheridan gained laurels as an energetic
fighter in his youth.
...
The steamer for Portland is taken at the end of the little road. Here we
got on the Multnomah, not so fine a vessel as the Harvest
Queen, but a snug boat all the same. ..."
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MORE Trains and Tracks, etc. ... (alphabetical)
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GoTo ... Trains and Tracks, etc.
- Amtrak ...
- Burlington Northern ...
- Burlington Northern Santa Fe ...
- Burlington Northern Santa Fe Tracks ...
- Cascade Portage Railroad ...
- CEFX ...
- Early History, 1851 ...
- Early History, north side, Bradford Brothers, 1855 ...
- Early History, south side, 1855-1862 ...
- Great Northern ...
- Great Northern 2507 (GN 2507) ...
- Ilwaco Railroad ...
- Kalama Railroad Ferry ...
- North Bank Road ...
- Northern Pacific ...
- Oregon Pony ...
- Oregon Railway & Navigation Company ...
- Oregon Steam Navigation Company ...
- Oregon Trunk Line (Bridge at Wishram/Celilo) ...
- Pasco-Kennewick Northern Pacific Railroad Bridge ...
- Portland & Seattle ...
- Portland-Vancouver Bridge ...
- Santa Fe ...
- "Six Spot" ...
- Southern Pacific ...
- Southern Pacific 4449 (SP 4449) ...
- Spokane, Portland & Seattle (SP&S) ...
- Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 (SP&S 700) ...
- Troutdale Depot Rail Museum ...
- Union Pacific ...
- Union Pacific 844 (UP 844) ...
- Union Station ...
- Vancouver Station ...
- Washington State Railroad Tunnels ...
- Willamette Engine "Six Spot" ...
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Steam Engine Excursions ... (date)
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GoTo ... Excursion Trains
- 2011, SP4449, eastbound, Vancouver Trout Hatchery, Washington
- 2011, SP4449, eastbound, Vancouver Railroad Bridge, Washington
- 2011, SP4449, northbound, Ridgefield NWR, Washington
- 2009, SP4449, westbound, Fisher's Landing, Washington
- 2009, SP4449, eastbound, Cape Horn, Washington
- 2007, SP4449 and UP844, northbound, Lewis River Bridge, Washington
- 2006, SP4449, eastbound, Wind River Bridge, Washington
- 2005, SPS700 and SP4449, eastbound, Dog Creek, Washington
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SPS 700 Steam Engine, Columbia Gorge, July 6, 2005.
View from Dog Creek, Columbia River Gorge, Washington.
Image taken July 6, 2005.
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SP 4449 Steam Engine, at Wind River, Washington, Columbia Gorge.
Image taken September 16, 2006.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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