Oregon Pony
| Oregon Pony | |
|---|---|
Oregon Portage Railway, Oregon Steam Navigation Co. | |
| First run | 1862 |
| Retired | 1873 (stored until 1904) |
| Restored | 1904, 1981 |
| Current owner | State of Oregon |
| Disposition | Environmentally controlled static display at the Cascade Locks Historical Museum in Cascade Locks, Oregon |
The Oregon Pony was the first steam locomotive to be built on the Pacific Coast and the first to be used in the Oregon Territory.[1] The locomotive, a 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge gear-driven locomotive with 9 in × 18 in (229 mm × 457 mm) cylinders and 34 in (860 mm) drivers,[2] was used in the early 1860s to portage steamboat passengers and goods past the Cascades Rapids, a dangerous stretch of the Columbia River now drowned by the Bonneville Dam. Steamboats provided transportation on the Columbia between Portland, Oregon and mining areas in Idaho and the Columbia Plateau. Portage was also necessary at other Columbia River navigation obstructions, including Celilo Falls.[3]
Shortly after the Oregon Pony was put into service, canopies were added to protect the passengers and their goods from the smoke emitted down as the locomotive operated. The engine moved nearly 200 tons a day on the rail route between the Cascades and Bonneville.[1] Portage owners Ruckel and Olmstead received $20 per ton for transporting freight from one end of their portage to the other. Forty cubic feet by measurement counted as one ton.
There is no record of when the two larger Oregon Ponies built by the Vulcan Iron Works arrived, or which of the three portage railroads they were initially assigned to, the Oregon side at The Cascades, the Washington side at The Cascades, or the 14 mi (23 km) section on the Oregon side 41 mi (66 km) upriver, between The Dalles and Celilo Falls. It is believed these two locomotives were named "Ann" and "Betsy". The various accounts all show April 1863 as the completion date for all three portage railroads.
The railway was bought by
In 1866, OSN sold the locomotive (for $2,000) to the Steam Paddy Company and it was shipped out of Portland on the Steamship Montana on October 18, 1866. It was returned to San Francisco for work filling and grading the streets of that city. It worked there until 1873, thereafter being stored in a warehouse. After the Oregon Pony was damaged in a 1904 warehouse fire, the owner, David Hewes, partially restored it and donated it to the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon. Col. Henry Dosch of Portland worked as a timekeeper for Hewes in San Francisco and discovered the “Oregon Pony” in use there. He was instrumental in having it brought to Portland for exhibition at the Lewis and Clark Fair in 1905.
It was displayed at the
It was returned to
The Oregon Pony is currently owned by the
References
- ^ a b c "Cascade Locks Historical Museum & Oregon Pony". Port of Cascade Locks. 2010-05-29. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ^ a b "Other Geared Steam Locomotives - Page STUV". Geared Steam Locomotive Works. 2010-05-30. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
- ^ a b c d Tucker, Kathy (2010-05-29). "Oregon Pony". The Oregon Encyclopedia. Portland State University. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ^ "Oregon Ponies".
- ASIN B003W03I4U.
- ^ a b https://pnwc-nrhs.org/Trainmaster1962/TM-1962-02.pdf
- ^ https://www.pnwc-nrhs.org/trainmaster_special_editions/Oregon_Pony.pdf
- Trains Magazine. 2016-02-16. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
Further reading
- Gill, Frank B. (September 1924). . Oregon Historical Quarterly. 25 (3): 171–235.
- Schwantes, Carlos (1999). Long Day's Journey: The Steamboat & Stagecoach Era in the Northern West. Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 129–132.
- Staehli, Alfred (1987). "The Oregon Pony". JSTOR 1494196.
External links
Media related to Oregon Pony at Wikimedia Commons
