Colonel Wright (sternwheeler)

Advertisement for Colonel Wright, published in the Walla Walla Statesman, February 28, 1863
History
NameColonel Wright
OwnerR.R. Thompson and E.F. Coe and (later) Oregon Steam Navigation Company[1]
In service1858
Out of service1865[1]
FateDismantled at Celilo[1] Engines to Mary Moody
NotesFirst steamboat to operate on Columbia River above The Dalles
General characteristics
Length110 ft (34 m)[1]
Beam21 ft (6.4 m)[1]
Depth5.0 ft (1.5 m) depth of hold[1]
Installed powersteam, high-pressure boiler, twin engines, horizontally mounted, 12.5" bore by 50" stroke[1]
Propulsionsternwheel

The Colonel Wright was the first steamboat to operate on the Columbia River above The Dalles in the parts of the Oregon Country that later became the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. She was the first steamboat to run on the Snake River.[2] She was named after Colonel (later General) George Wright, an army commander in the Indian Wars in the Oregon Country in the 1850s. She was generally called the Wright during her operating career.

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Affleck, Edward L., A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska, at 14, Alexander Nicolls Press, Vancouver, BC 2000
  2. ^ Mills, Randall V., Sternwheelers up Columbia -- A Century of Steamboating in the Oregon Country, at 80-81, 84-86, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (1977 reprint of 1947 ed.) ISBN 0-8032-5874-7