Gathering the Stories » Railroads https://www.gatheringthestories.org of place. Tue, 05 May 2026 17:37:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 The First Railroad in the Columbia River Basin https://www.gatheringthestories.org/2014/12/12/the-first-railroad-in-the-columbia-river-basin/ https://www.gatheringthestories.org/2014/12/12/the-first-railroad-in-the-columbia-river-basin/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2014 00:49:40 +0000 Haven http://www.gatheringthestories.org/?p=1220 The first railroad in the Columbia River Basin was built along the river in 1851. Little more than a cart on rails, it was a portage tramway on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge around The Cascades rapids.
Portage Railroad Track on left. Just below the Cascade rapids. c. 1867

Portage Railroad Track on left. Just below the Cascade rapids. c. 1867

With a mule and one cart, Hardin Chenoweth moved freight and passengers around the rapids for a fee of 75 cents per 100 pounds. In 1894, the little railroad was damaged by flooding and sold to a cannery, which used it to haul salmon from its fish wheels to its production building.

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