4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JUNE 21, 2017
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: Corvallis and cows
It’s probably fair to say,
with studied understate-
ment, that the mid-Willa-
mette Valley town of Cor-
vallis is into alternative transportation.
Corvallis is one of the most bike-friendly towns
in the state. There are probably more electric ve-
hicles per capita there than any other town. Every
year at Da Vinci Days locals compete to navigate
human-powered “kinetic sculptures” of various
and crazy description through an obstacle course.
And, of course, engineering students at Oregon
State University regularly work on projects such
as solar-powered racing cars.
It’s a municipal tradition that goes way back;
Corvallis has always had a funny relationship with
transportation. That may be because, its name to
the contrary, it’s not in the heart of the valley, but
rather fetched up tight against its western wall; so
as soon as the river stopped being the main in-
ter-city arterial, the town’s importance started to
fade relative to other, more centrally located mu-
nicipalities.
That process hadn’t really gotten started,
though, in 1860, when a Corvallis entrepreneur
got the tradition started with his invention of a
new kind of riverboat — one that he no doubt
hoped would be the fi rst of a mighty inland fl eet,
and powered by something far easier to come by
in the valley than steam engines:
Cows.
This inventor’s name, as far as I have been able
to learn, has been lost in the mists of time; histori-
an Howard Corning, in his 1947 book, just refers
By Finn JD John
For The Sentinel
to him sarcastically as a “genius.” This is either
a very un-clever jab or a reference to the Genius
of Georgia, a horse-powered riverboat that tried
and failed to do the same thing on the Savannah
River in 1820 using earlier and less effi cient drive
technology.
The Genius of Georgia, which the “Genius of
Corvallis” surely knew all about, was a massive
thing, an 85-foot-long catamaran 55 feet wide,
dominated by a massive 40-foot-wide capstan
wheel with two dozen horses yoked to it. The
horses plodded around in circles around the
wheel, which drove a pair of side-mounted pad-
dlewheels.
The Genius of Georgia successfully made at
least two 200-mile round trips between Savan-
nah and Augusta, but after the second trip it dis-
appears from the historical record; presumably it
didn’t turn out to be cost-effective.
This new undertaking, though, forty years later
and on the opposite side of the continent, would
be different — or so its inventor surely hoped.
There were a few key differences that should have
made it so.
For one thing, it was powered by cows rather
than horses — or, to be more precise, by oxen.
Oxen were in plentiful supply in the Willamette
Valley in 1860, because they were the draft an-
imal of choice on the Oregon Trail, which was
then in full swing. Oxen were not as fast as hors-
es, but they had more endurance and more power
at slow speeds; they were to horses what diesel
engines are to gasoline ones. Plus, with their four
stomachs, they could get their nourishment entire-
ly from hay rather than needing to be supplement-
ed with grain.
Also, by 1860 the treadmill had been invented,
and capstans — great wheels which horses (or, in
this case, cows) rotated around like a merry-go-
round with no riders — were obsolete.
So our anonymous inventor built a broad, fl at
hull; mounted a wide treadmill near the stern;
and mechanically linked its output shaft to a
pair of side-mounted paddlewheels. With fi ne
and self-deprecating humor, he christened the
vessel the “Hay Burner.” He purchased oxen to
drive it. Then, presumably with a load of grain
for the Portland markets, the Genius of Corval-
lis embarked on the Hay Burner’s maiden voy-
age, heading for Canemah — the little waterfront
town, now a neighborhood of Oregon City, that
faces the river just above the falls.
The spectacle of this strange new vessel churn-
ing along the Willamette River turned plenty of
heads. The hull was low in the water, and from far
away it looked like a team of oxen nonchalantly
plodding down the middle of the river.
Things went well for a while. Then, near the
then-thriving town of Wheatland near Salem, the
cattle drove the boat onto a gravel bar — or, as
Golding wisecracks, “walked ashore” — at Mc-
Googin’s Slough. Hours of hard and fruitless
work followed as the crew tried unsuccessfully
to pull the boat off the bar against the brisk river
current.
Meanwhile, with nothing to do but eat, the oxen
ramped up their “fuel consumption” considerably.
It was defi nitely a drawback of cow power that
even while idle, the Hay Burner’s “engines” had
to eat.
By the time a passing steamer had come to the
rescue and pulled them off the bar, the “engines”
had wolfed down most of the “fuel” on board.
The rest of the trip to Oregon City was unevent-
ful. The Hay Burner arrived, discharged its cargo,
and took on a big load of hay for the homeward
journey.
It was then that the boat’s owner made an awful
discovery: The Hay Burner was vastly underpow-
ered for an upper-Willamette boat. The bovine
mariners simply could not generate enough horse-
power to drive the boat back up the river against
the brisk river current.
And thus ended the maritime careers of the
cattle, and Corvallis’s fl edgling reputation as a
hotspot for innovative naval architecture. The
cattle were auctioned off; the Hay Burner was
pushed off the dock at Canemah and allowed to
go over the falls; and the “Genius of Corvallis”
and his crew took passage on a regular steamship
for the long, slow, humiliating ride home.
A few animal-powered ferryboats soldiered on
in Oregon waters into the early 20th century —
probably the best example was Jehu Switzler’s
horse-powered ferry, which crossed the Columbia
River at Umatilla regularly for a dozen years or so
after 1896. But as far as I’ve been able to learn,
no one else ever tried to use animal power for
long-distance marine transport; and I have never
found any reference to any other boat in Oregon
powered by cows — ever.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Baseball game shooting
Now these are 3 words one would not expect to see in
a news headline.
Though the shooting of Republican lawmakers at a
baseball game practice was tragic, it should not come
as a great surprise. While lawmakers expressed their
sympathy and said that their “thoughts” are with the
victims, no one expressed “thoughts” of sensible gun
control.
Stephen Thoemmes
Cottage Grove
Opinion on Governor
People tell me that Governor Kate Brown is an en-
vironmentalist, but I don’t see it. Seems like when it
comes to timber and other extractive interests, she just
rolls over.
While Kate touts she’s “committed” to the Paris Agree-
ment goals, she can’t say “NO!” to the Pacifi c Connec-
tor Fracked-gas pipeline in So. Oregon, or, the Jordan
Cove LNG terminal in Coos Bay!
We almost lost the Elliott State Forest because of her
dithering last year. Then, new Secretary of State Rich-
ardson joined the State Land Board, almost putting the
kibosh on the whole thing, with new Treasurer Tobias
Read also in favor of selling! Thankfully, better heads
prevailed.
Kate has shown no interest in PUSHING for a strong
Cap & Reinvest bill to limit the big air polluters in Or-
egon. Her much ballyhooed “Coal to Clean” bill won’t
do much until 2030!
The toxic aerial spraying of Pesticides across our tim-
berlands and citizens, doesn’t bother her, either.
I read the papers daily. I never see anything directly
from Kate to her Oregon constituents. What exactly
DOES she stand for? When will Oregonians fi nd out?
Will Oregon ever begin comprehensive climate change
work? Will she step up to MAKE it happen?
Robin Bloomgarden
Eugene, Oregon
Homeless in the community
The homeless problem is very real for many people in
our community. Our country created this problem so fi x
it. Talking about it, having meetings is going no where.
Yes, some people have done it to themselves. Many are
veterans that right there is a shame on our nation. Rent
is so high wages don't begin to come close to where
they should be.
Substance abuse is the other problem. Some people
have done this to themselves. Also when homeless
people have a car or truck to sleep in, if they try to park
somewhere, some people think they have to call the
police. If you were homeless would you like to be told
to move on?
Mike Ritter
Cottage Grove
C ottage G rove
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