Unlike the more accessible and temperate interior of Oregon, the Clatsop Plains country south of the Columbia was settled slowly. Its nemesis was transportation. Road-building was delayed for many decades. The plains were webbed with waterways; transportation was principally by canoe and raft. For land travel, the ancient, well-worn Indian trails served settlers, Indians and itinerants alike. Immigrant families often came down the Clatsop ocean beach by ox or horse-driven carts to reach land claims. Some settlers built primitive private roads over short distances in trying to solve some transport problems; however, these roads were not dependable, and often impassable for months by rain, flooding, or storms.

The 1830s and 1840s found the Columbia beginning to flourish as the center of transportation and communication for the Oregon country. Shipping and trading vessels plied her waters; passenger and immigration ships were increasing. Shipbuilding had started as early as 1811 in Astoria with the schooner Dolly. The first steamship, the Beaver, was converted at Fort Vancouver and set sail in 1836. The first regular transportation line on the lower Columbia was founded in 1842 by a black man named Saul who carried passengers, livestock and other freight in his small schooner. Many regularly scheduled ships followed. The Columbia, not yet tamed by channel improvements, dams or levees, required expert navigational skills; many ships were lost in its treacherous waters.