The PS Eliza Anderson operated from 1858 to 1898 mainly on Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Fraser River but also for short periods in Alaska. She was generally known as the Old Anderson and was considered slow and underpowered even for the time. Even so, it was said of her that "no steamboat ever went slower and made money faster." She played a role in the Underground Railroad and had a desperate last voyage to Alaska as part of the Klondike Gold Rush.
Eliza Anderson
Advertisement for Eliza Anderson, placed in Olympia Pioneer Democrat, Washington Terr., September 28, 1860
Protest by captain of Eliza Anderson against the Canadian court order freeing a person who had escaped from slavery aboard the steamer
Eliza Anderson in later years, with forward deck enclosed, with upper deck extended fully to bow
The Enterprise was an early steamboat operating on the Willamette River in Oregon and also one of the first to operate on the Fraser River in British Columbia. This vessel should not be confused with the many other vessels, some of similar design, also named Enterprise. In earlier times, this vessel was sometimes called Tom Wright's Enterprise after one of her captains, the famous Tom Wright.
Enterprise
Willamette Falls, 1918. These falls at Oregon City separated the lower and upper Willamette.
Capt. Thomas A. Wright (1828-1907), owner and commander of Enterprise 1858–62.
Drawing showing the "New Eldorado", the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush
