Steamboat Commerce Returns to the Columbia
The purchase of steamers by the Willamette and Columbia Rivers Towing Company signals a new era for river freight in Kennewick.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The announcement that the Willamette and Columbia Rivers Towing company has purchased the three steamers of the Open River Transportation company and are to put them in active service between Portland and the upper Columbia and Snake river points, should be good news to the people of Kennewick. Advocates of the open river have always maintained that when once the river had been made navigable there would be boats to navigate it. It is also encouraging to know that a company owned and managed by practical steamboat men has sufficient faith in the future of the river business to put their money into an enterprise of this kind. The motive back of the Open River Transportation was sentiment rather than business and the fact that the company failed to make the venture self-supporting has caused some to become dubious as to the possibilities of river traffic. There is no sentiment back of the Towing company. It is a business proposition with them. The announcement that steamer service is to be resumed serves to further emphasize the wisdom of creating the Kennewick Port district for the purpose of putting this community in a position to reap the full benefits of the river traffic.
“There is no sentiment back of the Towing company. It is a business proposition with them.”
The transition from sentiment-driven infrastructure to cold, hard 'business propositions' echoes the ongoing development debates surrounding the Port of Kennewick and regional river logistics.
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