Pomona was a steamboat which operated on the Willamette, Columbia and Cowlitz rivers from 1898 to 1940. Pomona was specially designed to operate in low water conditions such as typically prevailed in the summer months in Oregon. Pomona was one of the few steamers that could regularly navigate to Corvallis, Oregon, which was the practical head of navigation on the Willamette. In 1926, Pomona was substantially rebuilt, and served afterwards as a towboat. In 1940, Pomona was converted into an unpowered floating storehouse.
Design, construction and dimensions Pomona was built for the Oregon City Transportation Company ("O.C.T.C."), which had been organized by the Graham family in 1889.
O.C.T.C. owned two other boats at the time, the Ramona and the Altona. The Pomona was larger than both. Pomona was built especially for the summer season on the Willamette River, when the water would be at its lowest. Pomona drew only and was said to have been "an ideal boat for the low water season." The boat was intended to carry passengers and handle the large freight business of the O.C.T.C.
Pomona was built by the Portland Shipbuilding Company at its yard at the foot of Meade Street. According to a contemporaneous report, the steamer was 130 feet long Pomona had a beam of 26 feet and a depth of hold of 4.5 feet. Passenger accommodations consisted of a day cabin and five staterooms.
According to the 1899 official steamboat registry, Pomona was long, with a beam of and depth of hold of . Typical vessel dimensions given in sources did not include the deck extension over the stern on which the sternwheel was mounted, nor did they measure the beam (width) of the vessel over the often wide overhanging heavy timbers, called "guards" that were installed along the top of the hull to protect it from damage.
The official steamboat registry number was 150782.
Engineering Pomona’s sternwheel was turned by twin horizontally-mounted steam engines, each with a and stroke of . The boiler was to generate steam at the pressure of 200 pounds per square inch. All the machinery was installed in the vessel prior to launch.
Wood fuel The boiler was wood-fired, at least until 1911. Pomona used one cord of wood on a round trip to Oregon City. In 1911, this was comparable to the cost of oil fueled steamers.
There were different kinds of wood used to fuel steamboats. Split wood was generally considered the best, but it was the most expensive. Slab wood was the remains from the squaring-off of logs at saw mills. It tended to have a lot of bark and was considered inferior to split wood.
However, because wood other than mill products was too expensive in 1911 in the Portland area, O.C.T.C. ordered 500 cords of slab wood, to be burned by Pomona and the company's other boats on the Portland-Oregon City route. Pomona had not burned slab wood before, and it was unknown how the vessel would steam with it.
Split wood was cheaper on the upper Willamette, available at $2.50 a cord, compared to $4.50 a cord in the Portland area. In July 1911, Capt. Arthur W. Graham, one of the owners of O.C.T.C., was traveling along the upper Willamette to arrange for the positioning of 1000 cords of split wood along the river for use by the company's steamboats.
Conversion to oil fuel would not work for Pomona, because on the Corvallis run, they would have to fill the tanks with sufficient fuel to make the round trip, and this would sink the boat down in the water, making it more difficult to reach points on the upper river, particularly during low water.
The Willamette River route +Willamette River Distances from mouthLocationDistancePortland (Steel Bridge)MilwaukieClackamas RiverOregon City (Willamette Falls)CanemahTualatin RiverButtevilleChampoeg Yamhill RiverCarey BendTompkins BarDarrow ChuteSalemGray Eagle BarIndependenceSantiam RiverBlack Dog BarAlbanyCorvallisKiger IslandNorwood IslandHarrisburgEugene
The Willamette River runs south from its juncture with the Columbia River through the Willamette Valley. The most populous cities of the state of Oregon, as well as its most successful farming regions, are along the Willamette.
Service on the Willamette
Pomona made its initial trip on Saturday, July 16, 1898, arriving at Salem before 7:00 p.m., and returning to Portland the following morning. The steamer proceeded further downriver to Independence, where its arrival was met by a brass band and many citizens. At this time, the level of the water in the Willamette was 1.2 feet above the low water mark. Pomona encountered no difficulties in the initial trip.
By August 17, 1898, Pomona was making regular runs from Salem north to Portland, departing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:45 a.m. from Salem at the dock between State and Court Streets. M.P. Baldwin was the agent in Salem.
The schedule was quickly changed, so that Pomona would leave Salem for Portland every day except Sundays at 7:00 a.m. On Tuesday, August 23, 1898, Pomona carried the first hop pickers of the season upriver from Portland to the Willamette Valley. Pickers in that season were to be paid 40 cents for every nine-bushel box picked.
Rising waters in the Willamette in the fall permitted Pomona to navigate further upriver, and by November 7, 1898, Pomona was running to Independence.
Drowned passenger On February 20, 1899, a woman, identified as Mrs. Howe, of Gresham, Oregon, fell overboard from Pomona and drowned. The incident occurred before dawn, when the steamers Lurline, Undine, and Pomona were rafted together at Portland, with Pomona on the outside and Undine in the middle. Just before Pomona was to depart for Salem, Mrs. Howe, who was intended to visit a son in Salem, crossed over Lurline, then went on to Undine.
The bow of Pomona was a considerable distance away from the Undine, but at the stern the two vessels were still in contact at the wide heavy timbers along the edges of the hulls called "guards". Mrs. Howe safely crossed onto Pomona, but then stepped back to speak with a companion, took one step too far, and fell into the water and disappeared, despite efforts to save her. Her body was found about half an hour later under the wheel of the Undine. By then, Pomona had already departed for Salem.
Race with Elmore On Monday, July 4, 1899, Pomona departed for Portland from Salem at 7:00 a.m. Elmore, a rival vessel belonging to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company then immediately cast off. Elmore, decorated with flags and bunting to mark Independence Day, carried a small saluting cannon on the forward deck, and as Elmore entered the channel, the cannon was fired off. The two vessels raced out of Salem and were neck and neck as they departed the city. Pomona was the first to reach the locks at Oregon City. Pomona however was delayed at the locks, and Elmore was able to pass through first. With this advantage, Elmore was able to beat Pomona into Portland.
Landing at Eola on the Rickreall On December 13, 1899, Pomona ran up the Rickreall River (now known as the Rickreall Creek) to Eola, Oregon, where 293 bales of hops were loaded on board. Eola once had been a potentially important steamboat landing, although its use was largely restricted to times of high water when the boats could reach the town. The town however had been languishing since the 1880s, and riverfront facilities were mostly destroyed in the flood of 1890.
Pomona made its December 1899 landing at the former Wm. Jones warehouse, from which 25 years previously all the wheat from the surrounding area had been shipped to market. It was reported that all the people at Eola came out to see the steamer and that "many an old timer, who had in the early days built great air castles for the future greatness of Eola, dropped a silent tear in contemplation of what might have been."
Excursion to Champoeg memorial
On May 2, 1901, Pomona transported people from Salem to the site of the former provisional territorial capital at Champoeg for the dedication of a monument to the pioneers of 1843 who had set up the provisional government. Pomona left Salem just after 3:00 p.m. bound for Champoeg with 200 passengers on board. Among the passengers were a large number of notable persons, including Supreme Court Justices Robert S. Bean and Charles E. Wolverton, State Treasurer Charles S. Moore, Secretary of State Frank L. Dunbar, and others.
Struck snag and sank On Monday, December 28, 1903, while en route on the Willamette River from Corvallis to Portland, near a place called Carey's Bend, Pomona struck a submerged snag and sank. Carey's Bend was located about 45 miles south of Portland.
Pomona had been coming downriver from Corvallis with Captain Spong in command. A good number of passengers were on board and a good list of cargo. At 2:30 pm, the steamer reached Carey's Bend and there ran into the snag, which pierced the hull, sinking the vessel. Fortunately the water was shallow at that point in the river, and the steamer was only submerged up to the lower deck. All passengers simply moved to the upper deck without even getting wet.
About two hours later, the sternwheeler Leona, also owned by the O.C.T.C., came along, and after standing by a while, took off the passengers from Pomona and brought them downriver to Portland. Damage to the steamer was estimated at $500. Damage to cargo was reported to have been $100.
Salvage arrangements Arrangements were made the day after the sinking to dispatch wrecking barges with pumps and other salvage apparatus upriver to raise the Pomona and bring it down to Portland for repairs. Corvallis could only be reached by two shallow draft steamboats, Pomona and Altona, both owned by O.C.T.C.
Altona however had been damaged the previous Wednesday in a collision with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's steamer Modoc. Altona had been taken to Portland Shipbuilding Co. for repairs, and was not expected to be returned to service until Saturday, January 2, 1904.
With both Altona and Pomona out of service, O.C.T.C was required to suspend service to Corvallis. The smaller Latona had to carry all the company's business upriver from Portland, and was not expected to proceed further south than Salem. It turned out however that Latona was able to proceed as far south as Independence.
On Sunday, January 3, 1904, at about 1:30 p.m., Pomona was refloated. Pomona was able to raise steam and proceed down river under its own power to the Portland Shipbuilding Company's yard for repairs, arriving at 7:00 p.m. that evening. There turned out to have been two holes in the hull, one of which was about 15 feet long. To refloat the boat, the holes had been covered with canvas, and the hull pumped out.
Saved from fire in Portland On October 4, 1905, Pomona and Altona were moored in Portland when a large fire broke out nearby along the waterfront. The apparent origin of the fire was a pile of oiled rags in the basement of the New Era Paint and Varnish Works. Fueled by the varnish works, the fire destroyed an entire block of the city. Pomona and Altona were able to escape damage by being moved out into the river. As soon as this was done, the Portland fireboat moved in and was able to save from destruction the docks of the O.C.T.C and the Joseph Kellogg Transportation Company.
Grounding at the mouth of the Santiam On Saturday night, June 1, 1907, while en route from Corvallis to Portland, Pomona ran aground at the mouth of the Santiam River. Pomona remained grounded until Monday, June 3, 1907, when it was pulled off into deeper water by the government snag boat Mathloma. Damage to Pomona was only slight, and consisted of a broken capstan and some minor damage to the hull.