"W. T. Preston" operated from Olympia to Blaine, including the Skagit, Stillaguamish, and Snohomish rivers. Dead trees that reached Puget Sound often became half-submerged deadheads that could pierce the hulls of wooden vessels. The federal government began building snagboats to remove obstructions and facilitate river based commerce. "W. T. Preston" was named in honor of the only civilian engineer to work for the Army Corps of Engineers at the time of her construction in 1929. "W. T. Preston" used the main single expansion reciprocating steam engines, as well as many pumps and other hardware from her 1914 predecessor "Swinomish". The Swinomish was built to replace the earlier Skagit, the first snagboat to work the rivers of the Puget Sound.