Steamboats of the Arrow Lakes - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The era of steamboats on the Arrow Lakes and adjoining reaches of the Columbia River

Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

is long-gone but was an important part of the history of the West Kootenay

West Kootenay

West Kootenay was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was formed along with East Kootenay from a redistribution of the old Kootenay riding, which was one of the province's original twelve.- Demographics :...

and Columbia Country

Columbia Country

The Columbia Country is a term used in the Canadian province of British Columbia to refer to the upper basin of the Columbia River in that province. It includes a smaller region known as the Columbia Valley, near the river's headwaters at Columbia Lake in the Rocky Mountain Trench, and the Big...

regions of British Columbia. The Arrow Lakes

Arrow Lakes

The Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, Canada, divided into Upper Arrow Lake and Lower Arrow Lake, are widenings of the Columbia River. The lakes are situated between the Selkirk Mountains to the east and the Monashee Mountains to the west. Beachland is fairly rare, and is interspersed with rocky...

are formed by the Columbia River

Columbia River

in southeastern British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. Steamboats were employed on both sides of the border in the upper reaches of the Columbia

Columbia River

, linking port-towns on either side of the border, and sometimes boats would be built in one country and operated in the other. Tributaries of the Columbia include the Kootenay River

Kootenay River

The Kootenay is a major river in southeastern British Columbia, Canada and the northern part of the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...

which rises in Canada, then flows south into the United States, then bends north again back into Canada, where it widens into Kootenay Lake

Kootenay Lake

Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada and is part of theKootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s-70s, has changed the ecosystem in and around the water...

. As with the Arrow Lakes

Arrow Lakes

, steamboats once operated on the Kootenay River

Kootenay River

and Kootenay Lake

Kootenay Lake

Route

The Arrow Lakes route was accessible from the north, by a rail connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

at Revelstoke, where the CPR

Canadian Pacific Railway

crosses the Columbia River

Columbia River

. The Arrow Lakes Route was also accessible from the south, at Northport, Washington

Northport, Washington

Northport is a town in Stevens County, Washington, United States. The population was 295 at the 2010 census.-History:Northport was given its name since it was once the northernmost town on the Spokane Falls and Northern Railway...

, also on the Columbia River, where there was also a rail connection. The Columbia River

Columbia River

crossed the border near Boundary, Washington

Boundary, Washington

Boundary is a ghost town located in Stevens County, Washington, United States. The town was located near the Canadian border and near the Columbia River. Boundary's peak years were during the 1890s. The population was around 900. The town started off as a railroad camp...

, which was about 749 miles from the mouth of the Columbia, if traced along the river's route. Revelstoke was 937 miles from the mouth of the Columbia, so the total distance of the Arrow Lakes route was 182 miles from Revelstoke to Boundary.

Towns along the route, from north to south were Northport, Washington

Northport, Washington

, Fort Colville, Washington, and Trail, BC. After Trail, the Columbia

Columbia River

widened into Lower Arrow Lake. Towns and landings along Lower Arrow Lake were Robson, Edgewood, Needles, Fauquier, Burton

Burton, British Columbia

Burton is a settlement on the Arrow Lakes in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia, Canada.Before european contact, Burton was known as xaieken , a large village of Sinixt first nations people. Burton came to be in the 1890's when gold was found at Cariboo Creek, a steamboat...

, and Graham Landing. North of Grand Landing, the lake narrowed and became more like a river. After this stretch, it widened into Upper Arrow Lake. Towns and landings along Upper Arrow Lake included Nakusp, Arrowhead and on a short northeasterly branch of the lake, Comaplix and Beaton. North of Arrowhead, the lake narrowed and became the Columbia River

Columbia River

again, up to the next major town, which was Revelstoke.

Initial steamboats placed on the route

The first steamboat on the route was the Forty-Nine

Forty-Nine (steamboat)

The Forty-Nine was a steamboat built in 1865 at Marcus, Washington Terr., just above Kettle Falls on the Columbia River to carry travellers and freight north up the Columbia River and the Arrow Lakes to the Big Bend Gold Rush in the Colony of British Columbia...

, built to service a brief gold rush on the Big Bend

Big Bend Gold Rush

The Big Bend Gold Rush was a gold rush on the upper Columbia River in the Colony of British Columbia in the mid-1860s....

of the Columbia River, attempting the run from Marcus, Washington Terr.

Marcus, Washington

Marcus is a town in Stevens County, Washington, United States. The population was 117 at the 2000 census and 183 at the 2010 census, a 56.4% increase over the 2000 census.-History:Marcus was named for Marcus Oppenheimer who settled in the area in 1863....

, just above Kettle Falls

Kettle Falls

Kettle Falls was an ancient and important salmon fishing site on the upper reaches of the Columbia River, in what is today the U.S. state of Washington, near the Canadian border...

, to the La Porte, one of the main boomtowns of the rush, which was site at the foot of the infamous and also impassable Dalles des Morts

Dalles des Morts

Dalles des Morts, also known as Death Rapids in English, was a famously violent stretch of the Columbia River upstream from Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada, now submerged beneath the waters of the Lake Revelstoke Reservoir.-1817:...

or Death Rapids, which were at the head of river navigation but also just below the richest of the Big Bend's goldfields, on the Goldstream River

Goldstream River

The Goldstream River is a tributary of the Columbia River, joining that stream via the Lake Revelstoke reservoir after running largely west from the heart of the northern Selkirk Mountains. The river's name derives from the Big Bend Gold Rush of 1865, during which it was the scene of busy...

which meets the Columbia just upstream. Another major goldfield, Downie Creek, joined the Columbia just below the rapids and was the site of the boomtown Downie Creek, British Columbia, another port-of-call on the run. When the gold rush ended, Forty-Nine was withdrawn for lack of clientele, and the captain gave free passage out of the Big Bend area for those who could not afford passage. After that, the small steam launch Alpha ran supplies up to Revelstoke (then called Farwell) where the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

was building a crossing over the Columbia River

Columbia River

for its transcontinental line. In 1885, a much larger vessel, the sternwheeler Kootenai

Kootenai (sternwheeler)

Kootenai was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia from 1885 to 1895. Kootenai was the second sternwheeler to run on the Arrow Lakes...

, was built at the Little Dalles at Northport, Washington Terr.

Northport, Washington

, for the CPR, but grounded in September of that year, and was laid up for a number of years afterwards. After that, three businessmen formed the Columbia Transportation Company, and put the Dispatch on the Arrow Lakes route. The Dispatch (sometimes spelled "Despatch") was a clunky-looking catamaran, which first ran on August 9, 1888. Her owners made enough money from her operations to buy the Marion, which had been operating above the Big Bend. She was shipped over and launched at Revelstoke.

The owners of the Columbia Transportation Company brought in some bigger businessmen, J.A. Mara

John Andrew Mara

John Andrew Mara was a Canadian merchant, rancher and a politician at both the provincial and federal levels....

, Frank S. Barnard

Francis Stillman Barnard

Sir Francis Stillman Barnard, KCMG was a Canadian parliamentarian and the tenth Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia...

, and Captain John Irving, who formed the Columbia River and Kootenay Steam Navigation Company on January 21, 1890, with a capital of $100,000. In 1889 through 1890, the new firm purchased the idle Kootenai for $10,000 and built and launched the Lytton at Revelstoke, which was ready for service in July, 1990. The first trip taken by the Lytton on July 2, 1890 was transporting rails and other track-building supplies south through the Arrow Lakes to Sproat's Landing, where the Kootenay River

Kootenay River

flowed into the Columbia, for a railroad that the CPR was building from the landing to Nelson on Kootenay Lake

Kootenay Lake

. The trip was 150 miles each way, and Lytton averaged 12 miles an hour downstream and 11 miles an hour upstream, including stops for wooding up and minor repairs.
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.

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 (sternwheeler), 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.

Columbia (nearest to riverbank) and Lytton at Revelstoke, 1893

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 the 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.

Illecillewaet in ice at Robson; Lytton in background pushing barge, 1899

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.

Lytton was driven ashore by a storm on July 26, 1896, near Nakusp, and had to be withdrawn from service for emergency repair work at Nakusp. On August 2, 1894, Columbia was destroyed by fire just north of the international border. This took out both of the C&KSN's passenger steamers, leaving only Illecillewaet and Kootenai were moving the freight business, which was mostly related to rail construction. Troup needed a replacement for Columbia right way, so he brought in the Bulger family, experienced steamboat builders from Portland, Oregon, to run the shipyards at Nakusp and at Nelson, and to build Columbias replacement.

On July 1, 1895, the new sternwheeler, Nakusp

Nakusp (sternwheeler)

The Nakusp was a sternwheel steamboat that operated from 1895 to 1897 on the Arrow Lakes of British Columbia.-Design and construction:Nakusp was commissioned by the Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Company to replace the sternwheeler Columbia which had burned in 1894. Capt. James W...

, was launched from the shipyard at the city of the same name. This vessel was the largest yet seen on the Arrow Lakes, 1034 tons, almost twice the tonnage of Columbia. She was luxurious in a way other vessels never had been.

Images

Smaller vessels

List of Vessels

The following steamboats and related vessels operated on these lakes:

Steamboats and other vessels on the Arrow Lakes, British Columbia
Name	Type	Year Built	Where Built	Owners	Builder	Gross Tons	Reg. Tons	Length	Beam	Depth	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									unknown
Dispatch	sternwheeler	1888	Revelstoke	Columbia Transportation Co.		37	23	54'	22'	4.5'	8"x24"	Last used as snag boat, dismantled 1893, engines to Illecillewaet.
	sternwheeler	circa 1888	Golden, BC Golden, British Columbia Golden is a town in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, located west of Calgary, Alberta and east of Vancouver.-History:Much of the town's history is tied into the Canadian Pacific Railway and the logging industry...	Columbia Trans. Co.	Alexander Watson	15	9	61'	10.3'	3.6'	5.5" by 8"	sank on Kootenay Lake Kootenay Lake Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada and is part of theKootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s-70s, has changed the ecosystem in and around the water... in 1901
	sternwheeler	1890	Revelstoke	C&KSN Co.	Alexander Watson	452	285	131'	25.5'	4.8'	16'x62"	Dismantled 1902 or 1904
Kootenai Kootenai (sternwheeler) Kootenai was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia from 1885 to 1895. Kootenai was the second sternwheeler to run on the Arrow Lakes...	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	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 Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...	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 Minto (sternwheeler) Minto was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia from 1898 to 1954. In those years of service, Minto had steamed over 2 million miles serving the small communities on Arrow Lakes. Minto and her sister Moyie were the last sternwheelers to run in regularly scheduled...	sternwheeler	1898	Nakusp, BC	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.
Whatsan	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	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, Ont.			10	7	40'	9.5'	4.8'	gasoline Gasoline Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...	Only used from February 1 to late April 1948
Widget	diesel tug		Vancouver, BC		Ivan Horie	9	6	36.5'	9.5'	4.8	diesel Diesel engine A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
Columbia	motor pass. tug	1928	Vancouver, BC	C.P.R.		22	15	50'	11.4	5.6'	diesel Diesel engine A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Route

Initial steamboats placed on the route

Expansion of the fleet

Images

Smaller vessels

List of Vessels

Further reading

See also

External links