La Center was a small stern-wheel steamboat that operated from 1912 to 1931, mostly on the Lewis and Lake rivers in southwest Washington, on a route to and from Portland, Oregon along the lower Columbia and lower Willamette rivers. La Center was small compared to other sternwheelers of the Columbia River. However, despite a number of accidents, including collisions and groundings, La Center earned a reputation as providing dependable transport for the Lewis River country to the Portland market. La Center was somewhat unusual in that it was originally fitted with a gasoline engine, and then about a year after construction, the gasoline engine was replaced with second-hand steam engines. Construction La Center was built at La Center, Washington for the Brothers & Moe concern, comprising Uriah Sidney Brothers, E.C. Brothers, and Peter I. Moe. Dimensions La Center was long, exclusive of the extension of the main deck over the stern, called the fantail, on which the stern-wheel was mounted. The vessel had a beam of exclusive of the protective timbers along the top outside edge of the hull called guards, The depth of hold was . La Center had a draft of when loaded with its maximum capacity of 45 tons of freight. The overall size of the vessel was 67 gross tons (a measure of volume and not weight) and 64 registered tons. The official merchant vessel registry number was 209642. Machinery La Center was driven by a sternwheel. La Center was originally powered with gasoline engines. In June 1913, La Center was converted to steam power. These were two twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, with cylinder bores of and stroke of . The gasoline engines from La Center were fitted into the Lewis River Navigation Company's sternwheeler Wallula (ex Uncle Sam). In turn, the steam engines installed into La Center came also from the Uncle Sam. The Morning Oregonian described Uncle Sam as having "caused more comment than the arrival of any other river vessel which has come to Portland on account of her peculiar construction, which is not describable in nautical terms." Uncle Sam, which had been built at Corvallis, Oregon, had been granted a special permit to make a trial trip downriver to Portland to be inspected to receive a license to enter into the steamboat business. However, steamboat inspectors Edwards and Fuller refused to grant Uncle Sam a certificate. The owners of Uncle Sam