WSteamboats on the Columbia River system were wrecked for many reasons, including striking rocks or logs ("snags"), fire, boiler explosion, or puncture or crushing by ice. Sometimes boats could be salvaged, and sometimes not.
WBonnington was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia from 1911 to 1931. Bonnington and two sisterships were the largest sternwheelers ever built in British Columbia. Bonnington was partially dismantled in the 1950s, and later sank, making the vessel the largest freshwater wreck site in British Columbia.
WCity of Ainsworth was a paddle steamer sternwheeler that worked on Kootenay Lake in British Columbia, Canada from 1892 to 1898.
WCowlitz was a shallow-draft sternwheeler built for service on the Cowlitz River in southwestern Washington State. The vessel also served on the Columbia River. Cowlitz was in service from 1917 until September 1931, when, not far from The Dalles, Oregon, it sank in the Columbia river in a storm.
WGazelle was an early sidewheeler on the Willamette River in what is now the U.S. state of Oregon. She did not operate long, suffering a catastrophic boiler explosion on April 8, 1854, less than a month after her trial voyage. This was the worst such explosion ever to occur in the Pacific Northwest states. The wrecked Gazelle was rebuilt and operated for a few years, first briefly as the unpowered barge Sarah Hoyt and then, with boilers installed, as the steamer Señorita. A victim of the explosion was D.P. Fuller, age 28, who is buried in Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.
WThe steamship Leona operated from 1899 to 1912 on the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon. This vessel was original launched under the name McMinnville in 1899, and should not be confused with an earlier vessel named McMinnville, which ran on the Willamette River from 1877 to 1881.
WNestor was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Cowlitz and Columbia rivers from 1902 to 1929. Nestor was primarily operated as a towboat, and did most of the towing work on the Cowlitz River. During the 1920s Nestor was part of a small fleet of towboats operated out of Rainier, Oregon by Capt. Milton Smith.
WRegulator was a sternwheel-driven steamboat built in 1891 which operated on the Columbia River until 1906, when it was destroyed by explosion which killed two of its crew, while on the ways undergoing an overhaul at St. Johns, Oregon.
WUnio was a small sternwheel-driven steamboat which operated on the Willamette and Yamhill rivers from 1861 to 1869. This vessel is primarily remembered for its having been named Unio when built in 1861, in the first year of the American Civil War, and then having the name completed, to Union, by a new, staunchly pro-Union owner, James D. Miller. Union appears to have sunk in 1869, been salvaged, and then dismantled, with the machinery going to a new steamer then being built for service on the Umpqua River.