Barnes at the mouth of the Deschutes River on the upper Columbia River for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company ("OSN"), which by the time Tenino was built was becoming the most powerful transportation company in the American part of the Oregon Country.

[2] OSN built Tenino to run with Colonel Wright which was the first steamer on the Columbia above Celilo.

[3] As Professor Mills described it: [T]he Tenino made money as fast as the purser could collect and stuff it into a carpetbag.

On a single upriver run in May, 1862, when the gold rush was at its roaring best, the Tenino gathered in $18,000 for fares, meals, berths and incidentals -- the bar.

Her hull was too old to be worth salvaging, so OSN removed the engines and installed them in a new sternwheeler, called the New Tenino.