Originally built as the MV Stockton in San Francisco for Southern Pacific Railroad, she started out serving Southern Pacific Railways on their Golden Gate Ferries line on San Francisco Bay.

TV movie "Most Deadly Passage", a story about this ferry catching fire while at sea due to gasoline, instead of diesel, being put into one of the ship's fuel tanks.

She was serving on the Keystone-Port Townsend crossing in November 2007 when the entire Steel Electric class was withdrawn from service due to hull corrosion issues.

In August 2009 the Klickitat and the other three Steel Electric ferries were sold to Eco Planet Recycling, Inc. of Chula Vista, California.

[2] One of the original 1927 wheelhouses (removed in the 1981 rebuild) of the Klickitat was salvaged and converted into a small house currently located just outside Arlington, Washington.