Summary: NEARLY 50 YEARS ago, the Good Friday Earthquake changed Alaska forever. It killed nine people and slammed the West Coast with tsunamis that killed 122 more, including four in Oregon. It did something else, too, though: It heaved up the seafloor of the Inside Passage near the ghost town of Katalia by a good 12 feet. And in the process, it brought something up to the surface that was a very important piece of the history of Alaska … and, earlier, Oregon. It was a small wooden-hulled steamship with a screw propeller. Most of the wood had been eaten away by time and wildlife, but the steam engine and other hard parts were still there and visible. This wrecked ship turned out to be the remains of the S.S. Portland, the most famous steamer in Alaska’s history, the one that kicked off the Klondike Gold Rush when it arrived in Seattle in 1897 with the famous “ton of gold” on board. The Portland was almost like the mascot of the Klondike Gold Rush, so Alaskan history buffs were very excited about the find. But Alaska wasn’t the only state with cause for celebration. The Portland had a prominent role in Oregon’s history too. It had been as notorious in early-1890s Portland as it became famous in late-1890s Alaska. Before the ship was bought by a Seattle shipping company and renamed the S.S. Portland, its name was the S.S. Haytian Republic. It was based out of Portland, and it was probably the most notorious smuggling ship on the West Coast. It was operated by a group of smugglers whose clumsiness and ineptitude was like something out of a Keystone Cops comedy, so its name was in the newspapers a lot. Every reader in Portland knew that ship, and knew the names of its owners: Nat Blum and William Dunbar of the Merchants Steamship Company. (Portland, Multnomah County; 1890s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/22-12.blum-dunbar-opium-smugglers-616.html)
