basin and channel as a millrace, where the present basin is, which was then heavily timbered with cottonwoods and firs.
Along with the Argonaut, S. S. White of Oregon City, went to California to buy a vessel for the Oregon trade, intending to get but one, but finding really fine vessels deserted by their crews for sale for a song, he bought three, one of which, the Ocean Bird, with Berryman Jennings and McCarver as partners, became a moneymaker. Then he bought the Louisiana, on which the Lot Whitcomb machinery had come out, and with cargoes of Oregon produce made voyages to China. It is probable that in this way the Chinese houses came to Oregon City.
But boats that could run on inland waters were now in pressing demand. In September, 1849, David Wilkins, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, addressed a letter to the merchants and business men of Oregon City, asking for information as to the practicability of building a light draft steamer to run on the Willamette. Mr. Wilkins offered to build and ship in a sailing vessel around the Horn a hundred-fifty-ton steamer for $8,000. Nothing was done about this, but on July 4, 1850, there arrived at Oregon City on her trial trip, the first steamer built in Oregon, the Columbia, of Astoria. A celebration was held in her honor, and on Christmas day, 1850, the Lot Whitcomb, in which many Oregon City men were interested, was launched at Milwaukie amid much rejoicing. But the Lot Whitcomb was never able to get above the Clackamas rapids. Thirty thousand dollars were expended in improving those rapids in 1852, but, in the meantime, Oregon City developed an industry of which there is little actual record. In a natural depression of the rocks at the falls, just back of where Mill A now is, a dry dock was established, with a dam of crib work and a gate in it, to let boats in and out, and in this natural dry dock at Canemah in the fifties and sixties whole fleets of steamers were built, that ran on the upper Willamette, and some taken below ran on the Columbia and all the rivers of the northwest.
The first experimental steamer built at the Canemah dry dock was the Hoosier, made from a ship's long boat, with a pile driver engine and boiler, a little side wheeler with Captain George A. Pease as pilot and purser. She was finished in May, 1851. About that time Captain Irving in the bark Success arrived at Oregon City with three small steamers on deck, the Little Eagle, the "Bully Washington," a small iron steamer picked up on the Sacramento and launched above the falls in June, 185 1, and the Multnomah, built in the east and brought out in sections and taken piece by piece above the falls where it was set up, also, in June, 1851, and ran between Canemah and Corvallis, the first boat to ascend as far as Corvallis, bringing down a thousand bushels of wheat at a trip. Captain A. F. Hedges, who laid out Canemah in 1844, went east and brought out steamboat machinery to build the Canemah, the fourth boat above the falls, launched in 1851, a side wheeler, bluff bow and square stern, that carried mail and passengers.
The James Clinton was built at Canemah in 1856 by Captain Cochran, and others, who constructed the Surprise the next year. With Cochran as captain the James Clinton was the first boat to reach Eugene, arriving March 12. 1856. This was considered a great feat. The citizens of Eugene had promised to take five thousand dollars worth of stock if a boat could be brought up. Before, the grain had gone down in flat boats paddled by Indians. The Franklin, built at Canemah, was owned by McCarver and son, and the Shoalwater, later renamed the Minnie Holmes for a popular young lady of Oregon City.
In 1853, a rival company projected transportation on the west side of the river, with hoisting works to lift goods above the falls and deposit them in steamers, instead of wagoning them a mile or more, as had been done. A basin and bulkheads were constructed and mills erected at the lower edge. The hoisting works were made of ropes, wheels and an elevator, in which passengers and goods were transferred.
