Multnomah

Multnomah may refer to:

Multnomah (sidewheeler 1851)

The Multnomah was one of the first steamboats to operate on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers. This vessel should not be confused with the Multnomah, a steamboat built in Portland, Oregon in 1885, which was larger and of a much different design.

Design and construction

The components of Multnomah were manufactured in the eastern United States, then shipped to Oregon City, Oregon around Cape Horn on the bark Success. At that time, there were no locks at Willamette Falls, so it was important to determine whether a boat would be built above or below the falls. In the case of Multnomah, the vessel was assembled at Canemah, a settlement above the falls. This allowed the vessel to run on the upper Willamette, running south from Canemah through the Willamette Valley. Multnomah 's hull was barrel-shaped, and held in shape with iron hoops which made caulking unnecessary. The Multnomah was a sidewheeler, as were all the boats operating in Oregon before 1854. The vessel's funnel was equipped with a spark arrester.

Multnomah people

The Multnomah were a tribe of Chinookan people who lived in the area of Portland, Oregon, in the United States through the early 19th century. Multnomah villages were located throughout the Portland basin and on both sides of the Columbia River. The Multnomah spoke a dialect of the Upper Chinookan language in the Oregon Penutian family.

History

The Multnomah and the related Clackamas tribe lived in a series of villages along the river near the mouth of the Willamette River on the Columbia (the Willamette was also called the "Multnomah" in the early 19th century). According to archaeologists, the villages in the area were home to approximately 3,400 people year-round, and as many as 8,000 during fishing and wappato-harvesting seasons (wappato is a marsh-grown plant like a potato or onion and a staple food).

One of the larger villages, Cathlapotle was located in present-day Clark County, Washington at the confluence of the Lewis River with the Columbia and was visited by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805. According to their journals, Lewis and Clark found 14 houses in the village, most of them ranging from 14-by-20 ft (4.3 m by 6.0 m) to about 40-by-100 ft (12 m by 30 m). They reported that approximately 900 people lived in the villages.