[1] This vessel was chiefly remembered for its dramatic destruction in 1857 by being washed over Willamette Falls, an incident which killed its captain and a deckhand.

[1][2][4] For a brief period starting in 1853 Portland, under captain A.S. Murray, and Multnomah, under Capt George W. Hoyt, were combined as the People's Line.

Murray, had joined with the Enterprise, under Captain Archibald Jamieson, to run under the name of the Citizens' Line.

[8] Portland ran every day except Sundays for Oregon City, leaving Portland from the Hoyt wharf boat at 10:00 a.m.[8] Above Willamette Falls, the Enterprise made semi-weekly trips to Corvallis, departing from Canemah on Mondays at 6:00 am., and Thursdays at 2:00 p.m.[8] This association continued at least through March 8, 1856.

Arthur Jamieson in command, and one of his brothers as the engineer, Portland had come down river and landed the passengers at Canemah.

[11] When this was complete, the boat started back across the river under very low steam, and was caught in the current, and carried over the falls.

[11] The boat went broadside onto the breakwater, but then spun round and headed stern first over the falls, with the engine working the whole time.

[1] The crew of the Jennie, as that steamer was known, lashed on some of the wreckage, recovering some mattresses, blankets, a trunk, a carpet bag, and the steam whistle and compass of the Portland.

[1] One section came by the city of Portland, and a few miles downstream, a man searched it and found $75 in a room from the upper deck.

[1] Arthur Jamieson, last captain of Portland, was one of several sons of a family from the Isle of Arran, on the Firth of Clyde Scotland,[14] who had emigrated to North American and became involved in the steamboat business.

[16] Smith Baird Jamieson, captain of the Fraser river steamer Fort Yale, was killed on April 14, 1861, when his steamboat's boiler exploded near Hope, British Columbia.

[14][15][17] A fifth, unnamed, brother is often reported to have perished in the explosion of the Gazelle on April 8, 1854, at Canemah, Oregon[15] However, a contemporaneous report from the Oregon Spectator about the explosion of the Gazelle, contained a list of the persons killed and injured and made no mention of anyone on board named Jamieson.