[1][2][3] One of the principals of the Shoalwater Bay Transportation Company was Lewis A. Loomis (1830–1913), an early businessman in the Ilwaco - Long Beach area of Pacific County, Washington.

[5] On January 9, 1882, the boat was towed to Portland by the steamer Favorite to have the machinery installed at the Willamette Iron Works.

[5] By March 10, 1882, the installation of machinery was complete[7] A name, Montesano, had been picked for the boat, after a settlement on the Chehalis River.

[7] Montesano would be run together with Garfield, another steamer owned by Shoalwater Bay Transportation Co.[7] The Daily Astorian was enthusiastic about the prospects for the new boat: These boats are the Avant courier of coastlines that will one day center at Astoria as the natural headquarters and are admirably adapted for the trade they are to be engaged in.

The country in the immediate vicinity of Gray's Harbor is a tributary by nature to this place and permanent means of communication is all that is needed for our merchants to secure the trade of that section.

[12] In 1882, the Shoalwater Bay Transportation Company launched Montesano at Astoria to run mail from Willapa (originally known as Woodard's Landing) to Sealand, now known as Nahcotta, Washington on the Long Beach Peninsula.

[12] Woodard's Landing, which in October 1884 was described as "the second place of importance in the region", was about 10 miles up the Willapa River from the present city of South Bend, Washington.

[13] Steamers at South Bend could readily reach Woodard's Landing at high tide.

[13] In late 1884, the settlement at Woodard's Landing, which was sustained principally by the logging industry on the upper Willapa River, consisted of two stores, two hotels, and a warehouse.

[13] Montesano was handled on the Willapa Bay route by two members of a prominent steamboating family, Capt.

[3] A contemporary source states however that Montesano was transferred to Yaquina Bay, in the central Oregon coast, in June 1887.

[14] Prior to the departure for Yaquina Bay, Montesano is reported to have been once more in service in Grays Harbor, but dates for this second period of operations in the Chehalis River area are not furnished in the source.

[3] On the evening of June 8, 1887, Montesano departed Astoria bound for Yaquina Bay which was to be the boat's new base of operations.

[15] Montesano was reported in a contemporary source owned by D.H. Welch when in service at Yaquina Bay in 1887.

[21] While on Coos Bay, Montesano towed logs for the mill of the Southern Oregon Company at Empire.