The Columbia River Finally Opens to Navigation
Steamers Teal and Empire meet in the new waterway basin, signaling a new era for Kennewick trade.
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 Celilo Canal and continuous navigation of the Columbia River from the sea to Kennewick is now an accomplished fact. Although the canal will not be officially dedicated until May 5, it was dedicated to commercial use yesterday when the steamer J. N. Teal, from Portland, met the steamer Empire, from Kennewick, in the basin of the new waterway. The passing of these two steamers marked the real beginning of a new epoch in water transportation in the Columbia River, an epoch which we believe will mark the river towns as the great trade centers of the so-called Inland Empire.
“The passing of these two steamers marked the real beginning of a new epoch in water transportation.”
The opening of the Celilo Canal was a watershed moment for the Columbia River, fundamentally shifting how goods moved through the Northwest before the dominance of trucking and rail.
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