The U.S.-flagged, 230-foot Queen of the West is currently the only overnight sternwheeler cruise ship on the Columbia, Willamette, and Snake Rivers. Like sternwheelers of the past, the Queen of the West is propelled solely by her three-story-high churning paddlewheel. But unlike those earlier craft, the Queen doesn’t rely on a steam engine. Instead, she is powered by a revolutionary hydraulic propulsion system that uses environmentally safe biodegradable hydraulic oil. Her 45-foot-long bow ramp allows passengers to go ashore anywhere along the river, much as the 19th-century vessels did. Launched in 1995, the Queen of the West is the first overnight passenger sternwheeler to be built and operated in the West in 80 years.