 Canemah was an important place in the 1850s, and many more stores and residences were built, as well as nine or ten steamboats in addition to "Multnomah" and "Canemah".During this period, on April 8, 1854, the spectacular and tragic explosion of the new steamboat "Gazelle" occurred.Other steamboats built at Canemah in the 1850s included "Yamhill" (1851), "Shoalwater" (1852) (later known by other names), "Wallamet" (1853), "Enterprise" (1855), "James Clinton" (1856), "Elk", "Surprise" (1857), "Onward" and "Moose".