Oregon Pony - Postcard
by Charles Robinson
Title
Oregon Pony - Postcard
Artist
Charles Robinson
Medium
Photograph
Description
The Oregon Pony was the first steam locomotive in the Northwest and the first to be built on the Pacific Coast. San Francisco's Vulcan Iron Works built the wood-burning engine in 1861 for $4,000. It weighed only 8 tons and was only 14.5 feet long, the Oregon Pony arrived in Oregon in 1862 and was used in 1862 and 1863, was used to portage steamboat passengers and goods past the Cascades Rapids on the first Oregon railroad on the southern bank of the Columbia River between Bonneville and Cascade Locks The locomotive, a geared steam 5' gauge locomotive with 9"X18" cylinders and 34" drivers. The railway was bought by Oregon Steam Navigation Company (OSN). The company consolidated its Cascades rail portage monopoly on the Washington side of the Columbia River and moved the Oregon Pony to The Dalles, where it may have been used for portages around Celilo Falls. In 1866, OSN sold the locomotive and it was returned to San Francisco for work filling and grading the streets of that city. After the Oregon Pony was damaged in a 1904 fire, the owner partially restored it and donated it to the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon. The locomotive was returned to Cascade Locks in 1970. In 1896 locks were competed at Cascade Locks to bypass the treacherous Cascade Rapids. The locks at Cascade Locks were flooded by Bonneville Dam in 1937 and Celilo Falls, by The Dalles Dam in 1957. The Port of Cascade Locks funded a 1981 restoration and built a permanent covered display. The Oregon Pony is currently owned by the State of Oregon and is preserved in a climate controlled exhibition chamber next to the Cascade Locks Historical Museum at Cascade Locks.
Uploaded
December 21st, 2013
Embed
Share
