Steamboats of the Arrow Lakes
The era of steamboats on the Arrow Lakes and adjoining reaches of the
Route
The Arrow Lakes route was accessible from the north, by a rail connection with the
Towns along the route, from south to north were
Initial steamboats placed on the route
The first steamboat on the route was the
The owners of the Columbia Transportation Company brought in some bigger businessmen,
By August 1890, American interests had completed a railroad, called the Spokane Falls and Northern, from Spokane Falls (later simply Spokane) to Little Dalles, Washington (Northport). Lytton, Kootenai and the Arrow Lakes route formed a link between the northern CPR railhead at Revelstoke the Arrow Lake to the southern railhead at Little Dalles.[5]
Expansion of the fleet
After the successful 1890 season, the Columbia & Kootenay Steam Navigation Company decided to expand the fleet by adding a new sternwheeler, Columbia, built at Little Dalles, and launched in 1891, at price of $75,000. She remained under American registry. Once Columbia was in service, C&KSN was able to run two roundtrip boats weekly from Revelstoke to Little Dalles. The critical nature of the Arrow Lakes steamboat route can be judged by the fact that when the steamboats were not running, mail from Revelstoke to Nelson, on Kootenay Lake, took 10 to 14 days, as opposed to the two days during the summer steamboat season.[5]
C&KSN also brought up from Oregon one of the best steamboat captains on the Columbia River, James W. Troup, to manage its operations on Arrow and Kootenay lakes. Troup had to deal with a number of challenges, including irregular schedules, and ice and low water blocking operations. At one point, the water level, apparently in the narrows between upper and lower Arrow Lakes, was so low that only the small Dispatch and Marion could make the run between the lakes. Troup built SS Illecillewaet at Revelstoke, launched October 30, 1892, and "designed to float on dew". She was small, and apparently ugly, but was a big improvement over Dispatch, and could operate in low water when no other boat could.[5]
In 1893, a rail extension was built from Arrowhead to a junction with the CPR mainline at Revelstoke. Boats no longer needed to steam up the shallow waters of the Columbia between the north end of Upper Arrow Lake and Revelstoke, and Arrowhead now became the effective northern head of navigation.[5]
Lytton was driven ashore by a storm on July 26, 1896, near Nakusp, and had to be withdrawn from service for emergency repair work there. On August 2, 1894, Columbia
On July 1, 1895, the new sternwheeler, Nakusp, was launched from the shipyard at the city of the same name. This vessel was the largest yet seen on the Arrow Lakes, 1,034 tons, almost twice the tonnage of Columbia. She was luxurious in a way other vessels never had been.[5]
List of vessels
The following steamboats and related vessels operated on these lakes:
Name | Type | Year Built | Where Built | Owners | Builder | Gross Tons | Reg. Tons | Length | Beam | Depth[6] | Engines | Disposition |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Forty-Nine | sternwheeler | 1865 | Colville Landing, WA | Leonard White | Leonard White and C.W. Briggs | 219 | 114' | 20' | 5' | 12" by 48" | little used after 1870 | |
Alpha | steam launch | 1882 | Hong Kong[7] | unknown | ||||||||
Dispatch | sternwheeler | 1888 | Revelstoke
|
Columbia Transportation Co. | 37 | 23 | 54' | 22'[8] | 4.5' | 8"x24" | Last used as snag boat, dismantled 1893, engines to Illecillewaet. | |
sternwheeler | circa 1888 | Golden, BC[9] | Columbia Trans. Co. | Alexander Watson | 15 | 9 | 61' | 10.3' | 3.6' | 5.5" by 8" | sank on Kootenay Lake in 1901 | |
sternwheeler | 1890 | Revelstoke
|
C&KSN Co. | Alexander Watson | 452 | 285 | 131' | 25.5' | 4.8' | 16'x62" | Dismantled 1902 or 1904 | |
Kootenai | sternwheeler | 1885 | Little Dalles | Henderson & McCartney | Paquet & Smith/E.G.Thomason | 371 | 269 | 139' | 22' | 5' | 14"x60" | Grounded and dismantled 1895 |
Columbia | sternwheeler | 1891 | Little Dalles, WA
|
Alexander Watson/Joseph Paquet | C&KSN Co. | 534 | 378 | 153' | 28' | 6.3' | 18"x72" | Burned, 1894, total loss |
Illecillewaet | sternwheel scow | 1892 | Revelstoke | C&KSN Co. | Alexander Watson | 98 | 62 | 78' | 15' | 4' | 8"x24" (from Dispatch) | Sold for barge use, 1902 |
sternwheeler | 1895 | Nakusp, BC | C&KSN | Thomas J. Bulger | 1083 | 832 | 171' | 33.5' | 6.3' | 20"x72" | Destroyed by fire at dock at Arrowhead, BC, 23 Dec 1897 | |
Trail | sternwheeler | 1896 | Nakusp, BC | C&KSN | Thomas J. Bulger | 663 | 418 | 165' | 31 | 4.9' | 14" by 60" | destroyed by fire at Robson West, BC, June 1900 |
Columbia | steam tug | 1896[10] | Nakusp, BC | C&KSN | Thomas J. Bulger | 50 | 34 | 77' | 14.5' | 6.4' | 9" / 18" by 12" | In service until 1947, sold 1948, later disposition unknown |
Kootenay | sternwheeler | 1897 | Nakusp, BC | Canadian Pacific Railway | Thomas J. Bulger | 1117 | 732 | 184' | 33 | 6.2' | 18" by 72" | Used as houseboat after about 1920, eventually abandoned below Nakusp. |
sternwheeler | 1897 | Nakusp, BC | C.P.R. | Thomas J. Bulger | 884 | 532 | 183' | 29' | 7' | 22" by 96" | sank 1917, raised, but proved to be unsalvageable, and sold for use as landing barge. | |
Minto | sternwheeler | 1898 | Nakusp, BC[11] | C.P.R. | J. M. Bulger | 830 | 522 | 162' | 30' | 5.1' | 16" by 72" | abandoned on beach 1955, fittings and sternwheel stripped, deliberately burned August 1, 1968, after restoration efforts failed. |
Revelstoke | sternwheeler | 1902 | Nakusp, BC | Columbia River Steamship Co. | 309 | 179 | 127' | 22.7' | 4.3' | 12" by 60" | Destroyed by fire at Comaplix, April 1915, possibly arson. | |
Whatshan | steam tug | 1909 | Nakusp, BC | C.P.R. | 106 | 72 | 90' | 19' | 8.1' | 12" / 26" by 18" | Out of service 1919, scrapped 1920 | |
sternwheeler | 1911 | Nakusp, BC[11] | C.P.R. | J. M. Bulger | 1700 | 1010 | 203' | 39 | 7.5' | 16"/ 34" by 96" | Dismantled 1950s | |
Nipigonian | motor launch (steel hull) | 1929 | Penetang, ON[12] | 10 | 7 | 40' | 9.5' | 4.8' | gasoline | Only used from February 1 to late April 1948 | ||
Widget | diesel tug | Vancouver, BC | Ivan Horie[13] | 9 | 6 | 36.5' | 9.5' | 4.8 | diesel | |||
Columbia[14] | motor pass. tug | 1928[15] | Vancouver, BC | C.P.R. | 22 | 15 | 50' | 11.4 | 5.6' | diesel |
See also
- Moyie (sternwheeler)
- List of ships in British Columbia
- Steamboats of the upper Columbia and Kootenay Rivers
Notes
- ^ The lakes are now merged into one lake by the construction of a hydroelectric dam.
- ISBN 0-87004-221-1
- ^ a b Walter Volovsek, "Steamboats of the Columbia", Trails In Time website
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-5874-7
- ^ ISBN 0-919203-15-9
- ^ Measurement is to depth of hold, that is, how deep the ship's hull was from the bottom of the hold to the first weather, or main, deck.
- ^ shipped to Spokane Falls, carried overland to Colville Landing, and launched there circa 1884
- ^ twin hulled catamaran
- ^ Shipped to Revelstoke 1889
- ^ rebuilt 1912 and 1920
- ^ Nakusp.
- ^ Primary service area for this vessel was on the Lake of the Woods in Ontario, and was only in operation briefly on lower Arrow Lake.
- ^ C.P.R. chartered Widget but used the vessel only briefly on Arrow Lakes, from February 1 to late April 1948
- ^ ex Surfco, exUchuck
- ^ Purchased 1948 by C.P.R.
The Columbia was bought by the Waldie lumber Co. and refitted from steam to a Vivian Diesel in 1948
Further reading
- Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier, (1st Ed.), Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972
- ISBN 0-8032-5874-7
- Timmen, Fritz, Blow for the Landing, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID 1973 ISBN 0-87004-221-1
- Turner, Robert D., Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, BC 1984 ISBN 0-919203-15-9
External links
- Arrow Lakes Historical Society
- British Columbia Provincial Archives at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2002-10-13)
- Trail Historical Society
- Crowsnest Pass Railway Route (Canadian Museum of Rail Travel)
- Revelstoke Museum and Archives
- "Trails In Time" website page on "Steamboats on the Columbia River"
- NFB film that includes the last run of the Minto