By Steve Lent, Historian

The John Day River is a relatively slow moving stream during the summer months and can easily be forded in many places. But during the winter and spring months it can flow at extremely high levels and is difficult to cross. A ferry was established by George Metteer about 1878 between Fossil and Service Creek. Young Charlie Clarno, whose parents operated a ranch nearby is believed to have operated the ferry while only 16 years old.

In 1882 Charlie acquired the ferry and property adjoining the river. He operated the ferry with a pulley system. Charlie added a fifty-foot steam powered paddlewheel steamboat that he had constructed in 1889. It operated for about ten years until it was destroyed when it was washed from its moorings. It was known as the John Day Queen. During its operation it receive wide acclaim for navigating portions of the John Day River. Charlie tried to sell his operation a few times but had no takers.

In 1904 Charlie decided to build another boat. It became known as the John Day Queen II. It was described in the Pacific Homestead as “having a 40–horsepower steam engine that was a neat boat built by a skilled workman and will be a small-sized river steamer of neat appearance.” Charlie did managed to sell the ferry operation and the John Day Queen II a few months after he built the boat and it had made its maiden voyage He received about $5,500 for his ranch and ferry. He moored the boat in deep water above the ferry site and moved to Antelope with his father.

After his father died in 1907 Charlie moved to Portland and became prosperous operating a teamster outfit. He conceived of the idea of bringing the John Day Queen down the John Day River to the Columbia and then down to Portland. He hired some local residents to help him float the boat down the river. They had decided that they needed a good dose of whiskey to bolster their prowess. They planned to take the Queen down through Clarno Rapids by reversing the boat with the paddle wheel downstream and back through the rapids and men with ropes would walk along the bank to guide it through the treacherous rapids. Residents from miles around came to watch the boat go through the rapids.

All went well until the boat reached the narrow and rocky portion of the rapids. The paddle wheel got hung up in some brush and when someone dislodged the brush the wheel began turning. A man using the paddle wheel as a balance was thrown back and his leg was wedged between the walking plank and the churning wheel. The boat then lurched off the obstacle and caught the inebriated men guiding the ropes off guard and they lost control. The Queen was on its own when it went tumbling through Clarno Rapids. It crashed into some rocks and filled with water and sank. The John Day Queen had made her last voyage.