Oregon Portage Railroad

The Oregon Portage Railroad was the first railroad in the U.S. state of Oregon. It lay on the south bank of the Columbia River beside the Cascades canal, carrying goods and passengers around the Cascades Rapids that blocked steamboats. At first it ran 4.5 miles from Tanner Creek, near the later Bonneville Dam site, to the Cascade Locks, and it was later extended to 15 miles. John W. Brazee of the Oregon Portage Company converted an older mule and wagon road into a 5 ft broad gauge line that opened on May 20, 1861, still hauled by mules. The locomotive Oregon Pony, the first in the Pacific Northwest, joined it in 1862. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company operated it and sold it around 1880, and a narrow gauge rebuild followed in 1891 before the completed locks cut demand.