❖ INTO THE RIVER BELOW ❖

Sternwheeler ELWOOD
136181
Built in Portland, OR., for service on the
Willamette River in 1891. Her first owners
were Jason Eldridge and brothers Guy, Charles,
and George Abernathy of Champoeg, OR.
Later she paddled on the
 Lewis River in WA, the Stikine River in BC,
and Puget Sound.
154' x 46.4'
510 g.t. 420 N.t.
It was said she was built to run on a heavy dew.
She was out of service in 1920.
Vintage, original photo from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

“Only two years old, the little sternwheel steamer ELWOOD groped her way up the Willamette River toward Portland’s Madison Street bridge through blanketing river fog. In the wheelhouse, the pilot shivered against the November morning’s frost.  He pulled the whistle cord, a long and three shorts for the draw span, and rang the engineer to stop the engines. The bridge tender acknowledged and swung shut the bridge gates; the span slowly creaked open to pass the ELWOOD through. 

      At the throttle of the town-bound Hawthorne trolley 'INEZ,' the motorman eased back a few notches to check the speed picked up on the downgrade to the bridge. As he peered through the fog, he saw the barrier and the open draw. He pushed the control lever to full off and wound on the hand brake to stop the car. The wheels locked, then slid like sled runners on the frosty rails.
      The barrier’s wood snapped into slivers; for an instant of time the car hung on the edge, then it slipped slowly over into the river. It barely missed the steamer.
      There was nothing the pilot, Capt. J.L. Smith could do as the ELWOOD drifted over the circle of bubbles where the car had been. He couldn’t start his engines. The paddle wheel would strike survivors struggling in the water. He could only wait until he was clear of the bridge to turn back and help. Rowboats were there by then, and twenty who struggled free of the car were pulled into them and onto the ELWOOD. Eight did not make it.
      The ELWOOD was built in 1891 for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Co.,  for the Portland-Oregon City shuttle run. She was of light draft to pass the rapids on the mouth of the Clackamas River and, with her younger sister boat the ELMORE.
      Competition must have been unprofitable, for in 1894 she was sold to the Lewis River Transportation Co and put into service on the Lewis River-Lake River route. In 1903 she was running for new owners between Seattle and Tacoma. There the ELWOOD’s history ends.”

Other officers and crew:

Capt. H.H. McDonald, Capt. James D. Miller (d. 1914,) Capt. R. Young.

Source: Fritz Timmen. Blow for the Landing. Caldwell, ID. Caxton Printers, Ltd. 1973.

Gordon Newell, editor. H.W. McCurdy's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Superior. 1965.