La Center at Timmens Landing, (La Center, Washington, moored by freight warehouse, circa 1920.
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History | |
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Name | La Center |
Owner | Brothers & Moe 1912-1916); Arthur C Heston (1916- ) |
Route | Lewis, Lake, lower Columbia and lower Willamette rivers |
In service | 1912 |
Out of service | 1931 |
Identification | U.S. #209642 |
Fate | Abandoned. |
General characteristics | |
Type | inland all-purpose |
Length | 65 ft (19.81 m) measured over hull |
Beam | 16 ft (4.88 m) exclusive of guards |
Draft | 12 in (304.8 mm) |
Depth | 3.1 ft (0.94 m) depth of hold |
Installed power | originally a gasoline engine, later replaced with twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, cylinder bore 5.5 in (139.7 mm) and stroke of 2.5 ft (0.76 m). |
Propulsion | sternwheel |
Capacity | 45 tons of freight |
La Center was a small stern-wheel steamboat that operated from 1912 to 1931, mostly on the Lewis and Lake rivers in southwest Washington, on a route to and from Portland, Oregon along the lower Columbia and lower Willamette rivers.
La Center was small compared to other sternwheelers of the Columbia River.[1] However, despite a number of accidents, including collisions and groundings, La Center earned a reputation as providing dependable transport for the Lewis River country to the Portland market.[1]
La Center was somewhat unusual in that it was originally fitted with a gasoline engine, and then about a year after construction, the gasoline engine was replaced with second-hand steam engines.