Multnomah (sternwheeler)

The sternwheeler Multnomah was built at East Portland, Oregon in 1885 and operated on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers until 1889 in the United States.

McDonald (1857–1924),[3] who had already been operating the sternwheelers Elwood and Skagit Queen on the lower Sound, bought Multnomah and Capital City (ex-Dalton) from S. Willey Navigation, and put them in competition with the Greyhound, which had been taken off the Seattle-Tacoma run.

There was a rate war between the two concerns, and eventually Greyhound’s owners, acting as the Olympia-Tacoma Navigation Company, bought Multnomah and Capital City from Captain McDonald.

[4] Other captains for the Olympia-Tacoma Navigation Company included George L. Hill, who was in command on November 10, 1904 when Multnomah collided with the French full-rigged ship Amiral Cecile in Commencement Bay.

[5] Multnomah met her end on October 28, 1911, when in a dense fog in Elliott Bay, she was rammed by the steamer Iroquois, sinking in 240 feet of water.

Steamboats at the Union Pacific Dock in Seattle, Washington, June 6, 1891. Multnomah appears to be the vessel closest to the dock. The larger vessel appears to be T.J. Potter .
Multnomah (on right) and S.G. Simpson (left) at dock in Olympia, circa 1911, with unidentified smaller steamer approaching at far left
Multnomah passing through Tacoma Narrows , as seen from Point Defiance Park , summer, 1898