Historic Hood River
Steamer at the Locks
4-3-2019
Notes
This seems to be a relatively early picture of a ship passing through the Cascade Locks. I don’t recognize the ship, but it’s relatively small and the covered wagons on the bow hint at a pre-automobile age.
Ellen
Cool photo.
Kyle
Covered wagons… wow.
L. E.
There is another photo in here somewhere with covered wagons on a boat, but, I think that boat was smaller than this one.
Arthur
Yes, L.E., that was the steamer Dalles City in #1084. I think this ship is smaller than the Dalles City, but it's hard to tell from this angle.
Melody Shellman
One of the military engineers who oversaw the building of the Locks for a time was Willard Young, who was one of Brigham Young's children. He kept a diary that included his time at the Locks. It has been digitized and can be found here: https://catalog.lds.org/record/de738a70-7fad-4276-8e71-e06120cc5582/comp/6cdf499c-0eea-4670-8add-d1a10d9eca77?view=browse
Arthur
Thanks for that link, Melody. Just for grins I checked to see if he met Carleton Watkins in December 1883, when he photographed the locks (see #689). Diary entry: “Watched photographer take pictures of steamer.” He also mentions Watkins coming to the office looking for information the previous day.
https://catalog.lds.org/assets/6cdf499c-0eea-4670-8add-d1a10d9eca77/0/193
Kyle
^ Haaa ha ha that's great!
Mychal S Ostler
This steamboat is was called the “Metlako” and it was owned by the Dalles, Portland and Astoria Navigation Company, the same company that owned the “Dalles City,” “Regulator” and “Bailey Gatzert” (for a time). The “Metlako” was the smallest and slowest boat in the fleet