Lewis and Clark's Columbia River - Steamboat Landing, Washington

Lewis & Clark's Columbia River - "200 Years Later"
"Steamboat Landing, Washington"

Includes ... Steamboat Landing ... Steamboat Landing Park ... Pendleton Woolen Mill ... "Chets Landing" ...

Image, 2003, Steamboat Landing, with Cottonwood Beach and Mount Hood, click to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Steamboat Landing, Washougal, Washington. Cottonwood Beach, Washington, and Mount Hood, Oregon are in the backgroung. Image taken July 3, 2003.

Steamboat Landing ...

Steamboat Landing is on the Columbia River at River Mile (RM) 113, upstream from Washougal, Washington, and can be reached from Washington State Highway 14. A floating dock provides a view of the Columbia River Gorge, Cottonwood Beach, and Mount Hood. The pilings visible are remains of the old paddlewheel boat dock which extended to the Pendleton Woolen Mill. Steamboat Landing is the downstream end of a 2-mile Columbia River dike trail which continues upstream to Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Click image to enlarge

Steamboat Landing, Washougal, Washington. Image taken November 21, 2004.

Steamboat Landing History ...

From the Clark County Heritage Site Information sign at Steamboat Landing Park:

"The first settlers near the mouth of the Washougal River arrived in 1845. By 1880, the community was large enough to support a dock; therefore, one was constructed a few hundred yards upstream from here. Some of the pilings are still visible. This dock became homeport for the steamer Calliope and later, the Jessie Harkins. Steamship passange to Portland was available dailty for both passengers and freight.

In 1908, the Seattle Portland and Spokane Railway opened the North Bank Line, providing rapid transport to Vancouver and Portland. This action, and the gravel surfacing of the wagon trail to Vancouver, forced the steamboat business to decline. By 1916, regularly scheduled streamboat trips no longer existed.

A few years later in the 1920s the Pendleton Woolen Mill switched from wood to oil heat. Pendleton constructed a separate dock to enable oil barges to tie up and unload. This dock was used through the 1950s, and you can identify the dock pilings and pieces of the pipeline immediately upstream of this rock fill.

In 1945, after Pendleton Woolen Mills deeded this piece of shoreline property to the City of Washougal for "street and public dock purposed" the rock fill upon which you stand was constructed."

In the 1950s the area was known as "Chets Landing" and was used to land pontoon airplanes.

Image, 2004, Information sign at Steamboat Landing, Washougal, Washington, click to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Information sign at Steamboat Landing, Washougal, Washington. Image taken November 21, 2004.

Steamboat Landing Park ...

Click image to enlarge	Steamboat Landing Park, Washougal, Washington. Image taken November 21, 2004.
Click image to enlarge	Steamboat Landing Park, Washougal, Washington. Image taken November 21, 2004.

Views from Steamboat Landing ...

Click image to enlarge	Looking downstream from Steamboat Landing, Washougal, Washington. Image taken November 21, 2004.
Click image to enlarge	Cottonwood Beach from above Steamboat Landing. Image taken November 21, 2004.

From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...

Clark, ...

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^*River Miles [RM] are approximate, in statute miles, and were determined from USGS topo maps, obtained from NOAA nautical charts, or obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Website, 2003

Sources: City of Vancouver Parks and Recreation Website, 2004; Fairhurst, R., 2006, Washougal, Images of America, Arcadia Publishing, San Francisco, California; Vancouver Audubon Society Website, 2004.

All Lewis and Clark quotations from Gary Moulton editions of the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Nebraska Press, all attempts have been made to type the quotations exactly as in the Moulton editions, however typing errors introduced by this web author cannot be ruled out; location interpretation from variety of sources, including this website author.