Steamboats of the Columbia River, Wenatchee Reach

Steamboats operated on the Wenatchee Reach of the Columbia River from the late 1880s to 1915. The main base of operations was Wenatchee, Washington, located at the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers, 465 miles (748 km) from the mouth of the river. Operations were mainly between Wenatchee and Bridgeport. Rapids below Wenatchee and above Bridgeport prevented safe navigation.

By the first decade of the 20th century wheat farming had expanded into Douglas County's "Big Bend" region of the Columbia near Bridgeport, and the valleys of the Okanogan, Methow, Chelan, and Entiat rivers were rapidly developing. The Great Northern Railrway was completed to Wenatchee and west to Puget Sound by 1893, making it became profitable for crops to be shipped down the Columbia to Wenatchee's rail link.

Prior to the construction of dams, open navigability was never established throughout the Columbia. This was an important difference from the Mississippi-Ohio River system, which in the right season, and with a canal around the Falls of the Ohio, was navigable from New Orleans to Pittsburgh, an enormous distance. By contrast, no steamboat could ever ascend or descend the entire route of the Columbia, although the nature of the river was that even far inland, such as at Arrow and Kootenay Lakes, vast areas remained navigable, but separated by rapids and shoals from the rest of the river.

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