Minnehaha (sternwheeler)

Advertisement for auction of Minnehaha, September 4, 1871
History
Name:	Minnehaha
Route:	Oswego Lake, Willamette River
Maiden voyage:	October 24, 1866
Identification:	U.S. 90084
General characteristics
Type:	inland steamboat
Length:	70 ft (21.3 m) exclusive of fantail.
Beam:	16 ft (4.9 m) exclusive of guards
Depth:	3 ft (1 m) 3.5 ft (1 m) or depth of hold
Installed power:	twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, single cylinder, bore 8.5 in (215.90 mm), stroke 18 in (457.20 mm).
Propulsion:	stern-wheel

Minnehaha was a sternwheel-driven steamboat which was built in 1866 on Oswego Lake, then known as Sucker Lake, in Oregon, United States. Minnehaha was later transferred to the Willamette and Columbia rivers where it operated for the first part of the 1870s.

John C. Trullinger (b.1828) built the Minnehaha on the eastern or “upper” end of Sucker Lake, near a sawmill owned by the Oswego Milling Company.

Minnehaha was driven by a stern-wheel, which was turned by twin steam engines removed from the steam scow Skedaddle, which had been built in 1862 on the Tualatin River.

The size of the engines has been variously reported. An 1871 source states that each engine had an internal cylinder diameter, called a “bore” of 8.5 in (215.90 mm) and the distance traveled by the piston, called the “stroke” of 18 in (457.20 mm).

Minnehaha had a locomotive-type boiler 14 feet long, which was described as “nearly new” in September 1871. The size of the firebox was reported to have been 4.5 feet by 3 feet.

Minnehaha was 70 ft (21.3 m) long, exclusive of the extension of the main deck over the stern, called the fantail, on which the stern-wheel was mounted.

The beam (width) of Minnehaha was 16 ft (4.9 m) exclusive of the protective timbers along the upper sides of the hull, called the guards. The depth of hold was 3 ft (1 m) 3.5 ft (1 m).

In 1874, Minnehaha measured out at 103.63 gross tons, which was a measure of volume and not weight. The official merchant registry number in 1874 was 90084.

Minnehaha was the only steamer ever launched upon Sucker Lake. However, Minnehaha was not the only steam vessel ever to operate on the lake; the others were built on the Tualatin River and transferred to the lake.

The small (20 gross tons) Henrietta operating on the lake in 1870. The much larger sternwheeler Onward made at least one trip on Sucker Lake, on January 21, 1873, reaching the lake from the Tualatin through a canal which had recently been completed on the west, or “upper” end of the lake.

Minnehaha made its trial trip on October 24, 1866, under Captain Richard Copely.

In October 1866, Minnehaha became part of a transportation route to Washington County, Oregon which sought to avoid the navigation barrier then formed by Willamette Falls.