Steamboats of Yaquina Bay and Yaquina River

Yaquina Bay is a small bay partially within Newport, Oregon, United States, located where the Yaquina River flows into the Pacific Ocean. It is traversed by the Yaquina Bay Bridge. The bay's area is about 8 km² .-See also:...

, like Coos Bay

Coos Bay

Coos Bay is an S-shaped inlet where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, approximately 10 miles long and two miles wide, on the Pacific Ocean coast of southwestern Oregon in the United States. The estuary is situated south of the Salmon River. The city of Coos Bay, once named Marshfield, was...

, is a shallow coastal bay on the Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It runs generally north-south along the Pacific Ocean, forming the western border of the state; the region is bounded to the east by the Oregon Coast Range. The Oregon Coast stretches approximately from the Columbia River in the north to...

in the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. The principal town on Yaquina Bay is Newport

Newport, Oregon

Newport is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. It was incorporated in 1882, though the name dates back to the establishment of a post office in 1868...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. The Yaquina River

Yaquina River

The Yaquina River is a river, approximately 50 mi long, on the Pacific coast of Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of the Central Oregon Coast Range west of the Willamette Valley near Newport....

flows into the bay. Until modern roads reached Newport in the late 1920s, the principal transportation method to and from Newport was by ship or boat.

Description of waterway

The bay entrance is just south and west of Newport. The Yaquina Bay Bridge

Yaquina Bay Bridge

The Yaquina Bay Bridge is an arch bridge that spans Yaquina Bay south of Newport, Oregon. It is one of the most recognizable of the U.S. Route 101 bridges designed by Conde McCullough....

, designed by Conde McCullough

Conde McCullough

Conde Balcom McCullough was a U.S. bridge engineer who is primarily known for designing many of Oregon's coastal bridges on U.S. Route 101. The native of South Dakota worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation from 1919 to 1935 and 1937 until 1946...

, now carries the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101) across the bay entrance. Before the bridge was built, however, it was necessary to take a ferry to reach the south shore. Just east of Newport on the north side of the bay was a settlement called Olssonville. Further up the bay was the town of Yaquina City

Yaquina, Oregon

Yaquina , at one time a thriving port called Yaquina City, is an unincorporated area in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. It is located near the mouth of the Yaquina River, on the east side of Yaquina Bay, and is about a 3-mile drive from Newport...

. About one mile south of Yaquina City was Oneatta Point, where the bay turned almost due east and became the Yaquina River. Yaquina City was a boom town in the 1880s, when for example in 1887 144 ships cleared the harbor.

Just around the bend of Oneatta Point were the towns of Winant on the north bank and Oysterville on the south. Seagoing ships could come as far up the bay as Yaquina City. About 4 to 5 miles above Yaquina was the town of Toledo, the county seat from 1893 to 1953. Up the river further, nine miles from its mouth, was Elk City, which was the head of navigation on the Yaquina River.

Early years

The entire Yaquina Bay area (and large portions of the Oregon coast to the north and south) had been set aside in the 1850s as the Coast Indian Reservation

Coast Indian Reservation

The Coast Indian Reservation is a former Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Oregon, established in 1855. It was gradually greatly reduced in size to become the present-day Siletz Reservation.-History:...

. This did not last long, and on January 8, 1866, the Yaquina Bay area was opened up to white settlement.

In 1868, regular mail service was established between Corvallis

Corvallis, Oregon

Corvallis is a city located in central western Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Benton County and the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 54,462....

and Toledo

Toledo, Oregon

Toledo is a city located on the Yaquina River and along U.S. Route 20 in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 3,472...

. A stage line was established between Corvallis and Toledo, which ran every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (and just once weekly during winter mud) taking twelve hours to arrive at Elk City. Once there, travelers would stay overnight in a hotel, then board a steamer bound down river and across the bay to Newport, where a small wharf had been built.

Propeller steamboats did most of this service, however in 1872, the sidewheeler Oneatta was launched at Pioneer, ran on the bay for a while and then was transferred to the Columbia River

Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

, then in 1882, to Humboldt Bay. Later, Rebecca C. and Cleveland also ran on Yaquina Bay.

Sea route to San Francisco

When a survey by the United States Army Corps of Engineers

United States Army Corps of Engineers

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...

showed the harbor at Yaquina Bay to be deeper than had been supposed, interest in development of the area boomed. In April 1883, the beach front at Newport was enclosed by a bulkhead and filled to form Front Street, the first street in Newport, which effectively functioned as a long pier along the bay front. By 1885, the Oregon Pacific Railroad had been built from the Willamette Valley all the way through to Yaquina City

Yaquina, Oregon

.

Once the railroad reached Yaquina City, boats on Yaquina Bay made daily runs from there to Newport. Normally it took three and a half-days to travel by steamship from Portland to San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. By taking the train from Portland to Yaquina City, and boarding a ship there, a traveler could save 40 hours off the trip to San Francisco. While there had been four steamships on this route, one of them, Yaquina City, wrecked on the South Jetty in December 1887, and her replacement, Yaquina Bay, was also wrecked in 1888 on her first trip into the harbor. These wrecks, and financial difficulties for the railroad, left the route unable to compete with the better transportation network centered around Portland. Steamship service to San Francisco ended in the 1890s.

At least one vessel was built at Oneatta, the steam tug Augusta, in 1888.

Ferries to the south shore

Ferries had operated from Newport to the south shore of Yaquina Bay since 1866. They had been privately owned until the 1890s when the City of Newport, and later Lincoln County began giving the ferry a subsidy. In 1913, one Zenas Copeland, owner of the Mud Hen, received a contract to run the ferry route to the south shore. Ferry service continued to the opening of the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

Rise of tourist business

Once the Oregon Pacific Railroad

Oregon Pacific Railroad

Oregon Pacific Railroad or Oregon Pacific Railway may refer to:* Oregon Pacific Railroad , railroad from Yaquina Bay to Santiam Pass* Oregon Pacific Railroad , shortline railroad on the east side of Portland...

reached Toledo, on the east end of Yaquina Bay, tourists started coming to the bay from the Willamette Valley

Willamette Valley

The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...

. The roads were bad or nonexistent at the time, so the only way to the seaside hotels at Newport was to cross the Yaquina Bay by steamer.

On March 7, 1896, the propeller steamer Volante, which had been built at Oneatta in 1892 for the Yaquina Bay service, burned at her mooring at the Newport waterfront. In 1908, the propeller steamer Newport (81) tons was built at Yaquina

Yaquina, Oregon

for Capt. James Chatterton as a replacement for the T.M. Richardson on the Yaquina-Newport run. Later, Jack Fogarty and Capt. Oscar Jacobson bought Newport and the run from Capt. Chatterson.

As now, the summer was the high tourist season in Newport, and the steamers and small craft on the bay played a major role. It became the custom for everyone in Newport to turn out for the daily landing of the boat from Yaquina City. At the landing, wagons and draymen assembled to transport the passengers to points in the Newport area. For example, in the summer of 1902, the Salem Military Band came to Newport for a few weeks. Pleasure cruises were organized, with the T.M. Richardson carrying the band and pulling crowds of people on two barges. In the evening, the band played for the arrival of the Yaquina boat and also to entertain crowds waiting for the mail at the post office on Front Street. Eventually Newport organized a band of its own, in 1906 or so, which performed similar functions. Eventually Newport was converted to gasoline power, and put to tow duties for the unpowered barges Elk and Julia.

End of service

Until the 1920s, no railroad or highway reached Newport, and steamboats or gasoline launches did the transportation work to the railhead at Yaquina and other points on the bay and the Yaquina River. This changed rapidly as modern roads began to be built in the 1920s. The major coast road, called the “Roosevelt Highway,” was complete to Newport by June 1927. Riverine service to and from Yaquina City did not last much longer after that, ending in 1929, when roads eventually connected Newport and Yaquina, and the boat route was replaced by a bus line.

List of vessels

Inland steam and river boats of Yaquina Bay and Yaquina River
Name	Type	Year Built	Where Built	Owners	Gross Tons	Length	Disposition
Oneatta	sidewheeler	1872	Pioneer				unknown
Rebecca C.							unknown
Cleveland	sidewheeler	1870	Portland Portland, Oregon Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...	G.W. Simmonds	39	93	unknown
T.M. Richardson T.M. Richardson T.M. Richardson was a steamboat built in 1888 at Oneatta, Oregon, which served on Yaquina Bay from 1888 to 1908.-Construction:T.M. Richardson was built in 1888 at Oneatta, Oregon by Capt. James T. Chatterton. The boat measured long, beam, depth of hold, 36.38 gross tons and 24.53 registered...	propeller	1888					off-route in 1908, ult. disposition unknown
Augusta	steam tug	1888	Oneatta				bought 1899 by Stetson and Post Mill, transferred to Puget Sound, eventually operated out of Port Angeles under ownership of Michael Earles, sold in 1918 to American Tug Boat Co. of Everett Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, it lies north of Seattle. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 6th largest in the state and... , served there for unknown time.
Roselda	gasoline propeller launch	1895					unknown
Volante		1892	Oneatta				Burned at mooring, Newport, March 7, 1896
Newport	propeller	1908					Off route in 1929, ult. disposition unknown
Beaver	propeller (gasoline)	circa 1908?					unknown

Description of waterway

Early years

Sea route to San Francisco

Ferries to the south shore

Rise of tourist business

End of service

List of vessels

Further reading

Photographs from Salem Public Library

Photographs from Oregon State University