Celilo Canal
Template:Short description Template:Infobox Canal
Celilo Canal was a canal in Oregon connecting two points of the Columbia River, just east of The Dalles.
In the natural state of the Columbia River, there was an Script error: No such module "convert". stretch from The Dalles to Celilo Falls that was impassable upstream and navigable downstream only at high water and at great risk. Celilo Canal was built in the early part of the 1900s to allow steamboat and river-borne traffic to bypass that stretch.
History and construction
In 1858, a Script error: No such module "convert".-long wagon road, the Oregon Portage Railroad, had been built around the falls on the south side of the river. This was replaced in 1863 by a Script error: No such module "convert".-long portage railway owned by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. A number of studies and false starts were made towards building a canal around the falls, but construction on what was to become known as the Celilo Canal did not begin until 1905, and then took ten years to complete.[1] In 1909, Scientific American summarized the status of the work and its objectives:[2]
Scientific American was also optimistic about the prospective economic value of the canal:
The federal government spent 5 million dollars on its construction.[3] For an inaugural cruise, the steamer Undine left Portland April 29 and arrived in Lewiston, May 3, 1915.[4]
Boosters of the Celilo Canal organized the Open River Navigation Company, and put the Charles R. Spencer and J.N. Teal on the run from Portland to The Dalles, Twin Cities and Inland Empire on the route up the Snake River, and Relief on the run from Celilo to Pasco, Washington. Mountain Gem supported Relief above Celilo[5]
Once the canal was complete, navigation was open on the Columbia from the mouth of the river all the way to Priest Rapids, and, up the Snake River, to the mouth of the Grande Ronde River near Rogersburg. However, completion of the canal came too late to fend off competition from railroads, which had taken away most of the steamboat's business. Riverine transportation above Celilo never reached the hopes of the proponents of the canal. Only in the late 1930s did the development of wheat barge traffic, eventually driven by diesel towboats, become an important transport method on the Columbia River.[6]
Current state
The canal and all related works were flooded following the completion of The Dalles Dam in 1957.
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Coordinates".
External links
Photographs
- Albany on the Big Eddy above The Dalles
- Corps of Engineers photos of rapids and falls on the Columbia River between The Dalles and Celilo
- Corps of Engineers map showing location of proposed Celilo Canal and locks
- Celilo Canal and lock, 1915
- Sternwheeler Umatilla in Celilo CanalScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
- First steamboats to pass through Celilo canal, Inland Empire and J.M. TealScript error: No such module "Unsubst".
Script error: No such module "Navbox".