Harvest Queen was the name of two stern-wheel steamboat built and operated in Oregon. Both vessels were well known in their day and had reputations for speed, power, and efficiency.The first Harvest Queen, widely considered one of the finest steamers of its day, was constructed at Celilo, Oregon, which was then separated from the other portions of the navigable Columbia River by two stretches of difficult to pass rapids.
At considerable risk, this steamer was taken down through the first set of rapids in 1881, and the second set in 1890. Thereafter the first Harvest Queen was worked primarily between Astoria and Portland, Oregon until 1900, when it was dismantled. Most of the machinery was installed in a new, slightly smaller vessel, also called the Harvest Queen, which, although it had accommodations for passengers, was primarily worked as a towboat.
In 1926, the second Harvest Queen was sold to Alaska Junk Company, a scrap metal recycler, which sought a buyer for the steamer. With no buyer found, the boat was stripped out and then abandoned near Ross Island.
Construction Harvest Queen was built in 1878 at Celilo, Oregon for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The name was suggested by one T.B. Merry, "because she was the queen of the harvest, and the farmers' salvation." This vessel was sometimes referred to as the Queen. On August 1, 1878, it was reported that the Harvest Queen was undergoing finishing work at Celilo, and was expected to be ready to begin running between Celilo and Wallula, Washington by the first of September. Harvest Queen cost $24,000 to build.
Dimensions and engineering
As built, Harvest Queen was feet long, exclusive of the fantail, which was the overhang at the stern of the boat on which the sternwheel was mounted. Harvest Queen had a beam (width) of feet, which was exclusive of the guards, the wide wooden protective timbers running along the top of the hull. Counting the fantail and the guards, Harvest Queen was feet long, with a beam of feet. The depth of hold was feet. Depending on the load, the steamer's draft ranged from to feet. The vessel could carry nearly 500 tons of cargo. Overall size of the vessel was 845.80 gross and 697.04 registered tons. The official merchant vessel registry number was 95534.
Harvest Queen was driven by twin horizontally mounted single-cylinder steam engines, each turning an arm, called a pitman, connected to the stern-wheel. Each engine had a bore of and a piston stroke of .
Operations 1878-1900
In 1878, the navigable portion of the Columbia river was divided into the "lower river", running from the river mouth, near Astoria, to the Cascades Rapids. This was also called the Cascades route. The stretch between the head of the Cascades rapids and the foot of Celilo Falls was called the "middle river", the "middle Columbia" or the "Dalles route". The Columbia above Celilo Falls was called the "upper river" or the "upper Columbia".
Harvest Queen was built to work on the upper river, in conjunction with steamers working on the middle and the lower rivers. The Queen was then the largest steamer operating on the upper river. James W. Troup was the first captain of the vessel.
Navigation on the upper Columbia was seasonal in nature, usually beginning about the middle of March and ending at the beginning of December. Dense fogs and low water in early December 1879 forced the withdrawal of the larger upper river steamers, Harvest Queen, D.S. Baker, and Annie Faxon, from service and even the smaller vessels were having difficulty navigating on the river.
In 1879, the extremely successful Oregon Steam Navigation company was dissolved, and all its steamers, including Harvest Queen, fell under the ownership of a new corporation, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
In April 1879, the Snake River was rising rapidly, at the rate of two feet a day. Because of the increased water depth, and the increased freight on the Snake River, the decision was made to take Harvest Queen up the Snake River to Lewiston, Idaho. Upon reaching Lewiston, Harvest Queen would be the largest steamer, by 35 feet, ever to reach that city.
William P. Gray (b.1845) was captain of the Harvest Queen in June 1879.
On Monday, August 25, 1879, Harvest Queen arrived at Celilo with 437 tons of wheat, which at that time was the largest load ever carried on the upper Columbia.
In early October 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes was touring the west. After visiting Walla Walla, President Hayes and his party rode a train west to the Columbia river, where they boarded the . At Wallula, the president boarded the Harvest Queen, which proceeded west downriver to Celilo.
Rail construction was advancing along the south bank of the upper Columbia eastward from The Dalles, towards Wallula, W.T., at the confluence of the Columbia and Walla Walla rivers. By December 1880, the rail line had reached Blalock Landing, thirty miles upriver from Celilo. Harvest Queen ran between Wallula and Blalock Landing.
In December 1880, a moored steamboat, the NorthwestNorthwest had been built in 1877 at Columbus, W.T., (now known as Maryhill) and was 124 feet long, 24-feet beam, 4.5 depth of hold, and 356 tons. was in use as the railroad waiting room at Blalock Station. Once the rail line reached Wallula, there would be little work remaining for Harvest Queen on the upper river.
Transfer to middle Columbia In 1881, Harvest Queen was transferred to the middle Columbia River. This required the steamer to be run through Celilo Falls. Under the command of James W. Troup, one of the best-regarded steamboat captains of the day, on February 8, 1881, Harvest Queen went through the first stretch of whitewater, called Tumwater Rapids, sustaining serious damage in the process.
The boat was beached and temporary repairs were made, and the boat was returned to the river. At least two more falls lay between the steamer and The Dalles These were Five Mile and Ten Mile Rapids. Harvest Queen was able to pass both these rapids with only minor damage. The steamer reached The Dalles, the principal city on the middle Columbia, on February 18, 1881.
From 1881 to 1890, Harvest Queen was operated on the middle river, under the command of Capt. John McNulty.
Transfer to lower Columbia On Sunday, May 18, 1890, under command of Captain Troup, Harvest Queen was run through the Cascades to the lower river, witnessed by the largest crowd ever assembled for such an event.
Four hundred people came down from The Dalles on the steamer D.S. Baker. One thousand people boarded the R.R. Thompson at Portland, with eight hundred more embarking on the T.J. Potter. Bands aboard the steamers entertained the passengers. Ione also transported excursionists.
In addition, three passenger trains departed the Union Pacific depot in Portland, bound for the Cascades. About 8,000 tickets were sold for passage on the trains. Another train came in from Arlington, Oregon.
Once all the passengers had arrived on the steamers, they were transported from the lower Cascades five miles on the narrow gauge portage railway, or, in the case of the R.R. Thompson'''s passengers, on the regular line, to the upper Cascades, where the rapids began.
The first four miles of the Cascades were covered in just four minutes. There were twenty passengers on board during the run, including prominent steamboat personnel of the day. This was the fourth time that Captain Troup had brought a steamer down through the rapids. It was the ninth time that a steamer had been brought through the Cascades rapids. No further runs through the Cascades would be made until three years later, in 1893, when Captain Baughman took D.S. Baker from the middle to the lower river.
By this time, the Union Pacific railroad had acquired control of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. On April 1, 1890, the Union Pacific reorganized its riverine service, and appointed Captain Troup as superintendent. Harvest Queen was extensively repaired in 1890.
In March 1892 there were rumors of an impending rate war on the Portland-Astoria run among the Union Pacific, owners of the Harvest Queen, the then-new and speedy steamer T.J. Potter, and the pioneer steamboat men Jacob Kamm, owner of Lurline, and U.B. Scott, owner of the very fast stern-wheeler Telephone.
Readiness against Coxey's Army In April 1894, Harvest Queen embarked 300 troops from the barracks of Vancouver Barracks to be transported to Kalama in case of trouble caused by "Commonwealers" at Puyallup, Washington. A Northern Pacific special train was waiting at Kalama to transport the troops to Puyallup. The Commonwealers were a branch of Coxey's Army, an organization of laborers that arose in the context of the widespread unemployment following the Panic of 1893. The general plan of the Commonwealers, and similar groups around the country, was to travel to Washington, D.C. to protest, seeking government funding of projects that would produce jobs for the unemployed. Trouble had come in various cities as the Commonwealers boarded trains without paying fares. A large rally of the Commonwealers took place in Puyallup, Washington near the end of April, 1894. No transport of troops from Vancouver Barracks was ordered however, and at 4:00 p.m. on May 2, 1894, Harvest Queen was discharged from War Department service, and returned to Portland.
Rescue of snow-bound train passengers In early January, 1895, an O.R.& N. passenger train became stranded by snow drifts in the Columbia Gorge. On the morning of January 5, 1895, Harvest Queen was dispatched to proceed upriver through floating ice and bring out the passengers.
Intervention in fishermen's strike In 1896, Harvest Queen was chartered by the Oregon National Guard to transport troops to Astoria to intervene in a fishermen's strike. On Tuesday, June 15, 1896, an officer of the Oregon adjutant-general's office, Major Geo. T. Willett placed a telephone call to Col. Owen Summers, at the Multnomah County Armory. Willett informed Summers that an order would soon be issued to require Summers to assemble his troops and be ready for instant movement. Later orders to Summers were that Harvest Queen had been chartered by the Oregon Military Department and that he should embark the troops under his command onto the steamer to proceed to Astoria, and to cooperate there with county judge J.H.D. Gray in suppression of the fishermen's strike then in progress.
The troops were assembled by 11:30 p.m. on June 15, and were ready to embark on Harvest Queen early the next morning, at 2:30 a.m. The troops marched in a column to the dock where the Harvest Queen lay, and boarded the vessel. Freight and equipment, including Gatling guns and field artillery, was also loaded on board, and at 4:00 a.m. on June 16, Harvest Queen pulled out from the dock.
Col. Summers ordered the troops to behave in a military fashion and to remain inside the cabin of the vessel so that there would not be a visible military presence on the decks of the steamer. Sentries were posted to insure this remained so.Harvest Queen with the troops on board arrived at the O.R.& N.'s dock in Astoria at 10:30 a.m. on June 16, 1896. An encampment was set up in the courthouse square. Troops were detailed to serve as cannery guards, and a Gatling gun was set up on a tugboat to serve as a harbor patrol vessel. No disturbance was noted. On June 21, 1896, Colonel Summers was ordered to return to Portland with his command, but leave behind in Astoria about 100 troops, with the Gatling guns. The troops returned to Portland on board Harvest Queen.
Opening of Cascades Locks and DamHarvest Queen was present at the formal opening of the Cascade Locks and Canal on the afternoon of November 5, 1896.
Sinkings and other incidents
Overcrowding