Beaver (sternwheeler 1873)

Beaver (sternwheel steamboat)
Owner:	Willamette Transportation Co.,[1] Willamette Falls Locks and Canal Co.[2]
Route:	Willamette, lower Columbia, and Stikine rivers[2]
Launched:	August 21, 1873,[2] at Portland[1][3]
In service:	1873
Identification:	US registry # 2889
Fate:	May 17, 1878, hit rock and sank on Stikine R.
Type:	shallow draft inland passenger/freighter
Tonnage:	292 gross tons
Length:	125 ft (38.1 m)[2]
Beam:	25 ft (7.6 m)[2]
Depth:	5.0 ft (1.5 m) depth of hold
Installed power:	steam, twin high pressure horizontally mounted, single-cylinder engines, 14" bore by 48" stroke, 13 hp (9.7 kW) nominal[2]
Propulsion:	sternwheel[1]

The Beaver was a sternwheel steamboat built in 1873 for the Willamette Transportation Company. This vessel should not be confused with other vessels of the same or similar name, including in particular the 1836 sidewheel steamship Beaver.

Operations in Oregon

In 1875 Beaver passed into the ownership of the Willamette Falls Locks and Canal Company. Beaver worked on the Willamette River and then on the Columbia River on the run from Portland to Astoria.

Transfer to Stikine River service

In June 1876 Beaver was sold to Uriah Nelson and taken north to the Stikine River to serve traffic generated by the Cassiar Gold Rush.

Wrecked on Stikine River

On May 17, 1878 Beaver struck a rock 60 miles (97 km) below Glenora, British Columbia. The boat was wrecked but her machinery was salvaged.^[2]

Notes

1. Mills, Randall V., Sternwheelers up Columbia -- A Century of Steamboating in the Oregon Country, at 103, 143, 190, University of Nebraska, Lincoln NE (1977 reprint of 1947 ed.) ISBN 0-8032-5874-7
2. Affleck, Edward L., A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska, at 8, Alexander Nicholls Press, Vancouver, BC 2000 ISBN 0-920034-08-X
3. Corning, Howard McKinley, Willamette Landings -- Ghost Towns on the River, at 127, Oregon Historical Society, Portland, OR (2d Ed. 1973) ISBN 0-87595-042-6