 By the time Hedges and his party returned to Oregon, there were already three steamboats operating on the upper Willamette, "Hoosier", "Washington", and "Multnomah".In June 1851, the small "Hoosier" was making three trips a week from Canemah up the Yamhill River, a tributary of the Willamette, to Dayton.The much larger "Multnomah" was assembled at Canemah in the spring of 1851 from parts premanufactured in the east, and made her first trial run in August 1851.