Its 79-year commercial service life began with towing sailing ships over the Columbia River bar, and ended with hauling bundled log rafts on the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1968.

The tug, overdue and thought lost, was spotted by Navy patrol planes and made Pearl Harbor on 28 December with fuel for less than a day's operation left.

[6][7] In 1898, caught up in the shipping boom caused by the Klondike Gold Rush, the OR & N leased Wallowa to the White Star Line to tow that company's large sidewheeler Yosemite north up the Inside Passage to St. Michael, Alaska.

Wallowa was found to have suffered no damage and was successfully refloated on the next high tide, but three days later Columbia was stranded at the mouth of Portland Canal and became a total loss.

By 1900, Wallowa was listed as working for the Pacific Clipper Line under Captain E. Caine, carrying mail and supplies between Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Seattle.

[4][9] In 1904, Wallowa was purchased by lumber baron Mike Earles, owner of Puget Sound Mill & Timber Company (PSM & T Co.), based at Port Angeles.

[9] In early 1929, Earles sold Wallowa to a neighboring timber concern: Merrill & Ring Logging Company, formed in 1886 by two families established in the lumber business back in Michigan and Minnesota.

Merrill and Clark Ring had formed their joint venture after arriving in the Pacific Northwest to scout timberlands, acquiring large tracts around the Pysht River.

Wallowa undertook the same types of jobs for Merrill & Ring as it had for the PSM & T Co., but operating primarily between booming grounds at Pysht and Port Angeles.

To help pay off the large purchase, Foss donated a previously agreed-upon amount of towing services to Merrill & Ring, then in 1931 leased Wallowa to MGM Studios for filming the 1933 blockbuster hit Tugboat Annie.

The primary component of the rebuild was installation of a state-of-the-art, six cylinder, four-stroke, 700 horsepower (520 kW) Washington Iron Works direct-drive diesel engine, which made the tug the most powerful on the West Coast.

[9] For nearly three years following modernization, Arthur Foss was utilized primarily for coastal tows to California, Oregon, and Alaska, based mostly out of Tacoma.

The most famous of these voyages occurred in 1936 under the command of Captain W. B. Sporman when, battling bad weather the whole time, Arthur Foss towed the large four-masted schooner Commodore, loaded with 1,500,000 board feet (3,500 m3) of lumber, from Oregon to Los Angeles in a record seven days.

In November both tug and captain, Martin Guchee, were commended for towing the disabled motorship Eastern Prince from Yakutat, Alaska, to Seattle in just six days.

An experimental barge approximating the proposed bridge's configuration was anchored in the lake, and the most powerful tug on the West Coast was hired to put it to the test.

Captain Guchee took Arthur Foss at full speed around and around the test barge, generating four-foot waves and simulating lake conditions in an 85 knots (157 km/h) wind.

This work lasted until June, when the tug was assigned to a regular run between Hawaii and Wake towing barges of construction materials and military supplies for the airfield and barracks there.

In November, amid increasing U.S.-Japanese tensions, the tug was again dispatched from Honolulu under the command of Captain Oscar Rolstad to Wake towing two fully loaded barges.

Painted a highly visible white and green, Arthur Foss was a ripe target standing "out like a chain of coral islands on the empty sea", and Captain Rolstad was acutely aware of the likelihood of being bombed or torpedoed.

While underway, the crew hastily mixed all white paint on board with engine grease to repaint the tug dark gray to help blend in with the ocean.

[14] Arthur Foss and tow were spotted by U.S. naval scout planes and escorted into Pearl Harbor on 28 December 1941, where Admiral Claude Bloch cited the crew for action beyond the call of duty.

[14][16] Arthur Foss was ultimately the last vessel to escape Wake before Japanese forces captured the island on 23 December 1941, after a prolonged and bloody siege.

All members of the crew except Thea Foss's grandson Drew (who had been removed to a prisoner of war camp in Burma) were executed along with all the remaining captives in 1943.

The tug continued to tow supply barges between bases in the Hawaiian archipelago and even ventured as far as French Frigate Shoals, 500 miles (800 km) northwest of Oahu.

The tug returned to Hawaii after three months of this work, but afterward apparently spent a lot of time idle as navy crews were unfamiliar with operation of the main engine.

Afterward Arthur Foss regularly cruised Puget Sound waters during the summer months with a volunteer crew, participating in tugboat races, boat shows, and other maritime heritage events until 2001.

The tug's excursions ended that year due to rising fuel and insurance costs, and increased safety concerns, in the wake of the 11 September attacks.

Varying non-professional attempts at spot repairs over the years were superseded beginning in 2004 with larger but specifically focused restoration projects run by contracted professionals.

Following extensive survey, documentation, and hull maintenance projects in 2017, planning and fundraising efforts are under way to restore the vessel to its 1940 appearance, in cruising condition.

[3][4][23] Arthur Foss is currently docked at the Historic Ships Wharf at Seattle's Lake Union Park, and is a featured attraction open for public tours most summer weekends, or by appointment.