The steamship Leona operated from 1899 to 1912 on the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. This vessel was original launched under the name McMinnville in 1899, and should not be confused with an earlier vessel named McMinnville, which ran on the Willamette River from 1877 to 1881.
Construction Leona / McMinville was built in 1899, at the shipyard of Joseph Supple at Portland, Oregon. The vessel was a sternwheeler driven by twin-single cylinder horizontally mounted steam engines.
Acquisition by Yellow Stack Line In 1901 the vessel was acquired by the Graham family, rebuilt and renamed Leona.One source states that McMinnville was rebuilt and renamed as Latona, a similar but different vessel than Leona. Timmen, Blow for the Landing, at 108. The Graham steamboat line, formally called the Oregon City Transportation Company, but also known as the "Yellow Stack Line". All the steamers of the line had names that ended in -ona: Latona, Ramona, Altona, Leona, Pomona, Oregona, and Grahamona.Timmen, Blow for the Landing, at page 108.
Operations on Willamette River Leona ran on the Willamette River, including south of Willamette Falls.
Operations on the Lewis River In the early part of the 1900s, transportation on the Lewis River, a tributary of the Columbia River downriver from Vancouver, Washington, was dominated by the Lewis River Transportation Company, in which a prominent businessman Jacob Kamm was interested. By 1904, Leona was brought on as an opposition boat, which generated at least one favorable comment in the press at the time:
Loss by fire In 1912, Leona burned on the Lewis river near what is now the modern town of La Center, Washington. The wreck of the Leona is still visible on the Lewis River at low water during July and August. The wreck site is reported to be on the west side of the Lewis River bridge at La Center, Washington.
See also Steamboats of the Columbia River
Notes
References Affleck, Edward L., A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska, Alexander Nicholls Press, Vancouver, BC 2000 Card, Judy, Fields of Flowers and Forests of Firs: A History of the Woodland Community 1850-1958 (self-published) (excerpts relating to personal and newspaper accounts of steam navigation on the Lewis River available on-line at Lewis River.com).
Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, at 48, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966 Timmen, Fritz Blow for the Landing: A Hundred Years of Steam Navigation on the Waters of the West, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID 1973
Further reading Corning, Howard McKinley, Willamette Landings, Oregon Historical Society (2d Ed. 1973)