The Steamer Yakima’s Narrow Escape on the Snohomish River
A dangerous excursion up the river tests the limits of steamboat navigation through uncharted waters and shifting logjams.
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 steamer Yakima left Packard Jackson’s wharf with 23 passengers and freight. The goal was to reach Falls City. With a strong current, the boat made record time past Fiddlers Bluff and through the forks. Near the 10-mile bend, the crew encountered numerous difficulties, finally reaching a bar one mile below Falls City, where low water and hazards forced them to tie up for the night. On the descent, the return trip became an extremely dangerous undertaking due to six large trees having fallen across the river since the boat passed up. After successfully cutting through obstacles, the Yakima finally lost a rudder and grounded on a sandbar in the dark. The trip proved that light-draft vessels are essential for the upper Snohomish, as the river currently demands significant investment to be safely navigable.
“The Yakima’s trip has demonstrated one thing: Vessels of other draft cannot, until money is expended in improving the river, navigate the upper Snohomish.”
This 1876 account highlights the constant struggle Snohomish residents faced in turning the river into a reliable transit corridor. Today, the river is a recreational asset, but the 'narrow escape' narrative captures the era’s aggressive, often perilous, push to industrialize the natural landscape.
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