Steamboats of the Arrow Lakes

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The Arrow Lakes[1] are formed by the Columbia River in southeastern British Columbia. Steamboats were employed on both sides of the border in the upper reaches of the Columbia, and sometimes boats would be built in one country and operated in the other. Ultimate tributaries of the Columbia include the Kootenay River which rises in Canada, then flows south into the United States, then bends north again back into Canada, where it widens into Kootenay Lake. As with the Arrow Lakes, steamboats once operated on the Kootenay River and Kootenay Lake.

Route

The Arrow Lakes route was accessible from north, by a rail connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway at Revelstoke, where the CPR crosses the Columbia River. The Arrow Lakes Route was also accessible from the south, at Northport, Washington, also on the Columbia River, where there was also a rail connection. The Columbia River crossed the border near Boundary, Washington, which was about 749 miles from the mouth of the Columbia, if traced along the river's route.[2] 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.[3]

Towns along the route, from north to south were Northport, Washington, Fort Colville, Washington, and Trail, BC. After Trail, the Columbia widened into Lower Arrow Lake. Towns and landings along Lower Arrow Lake were Robson, Edgewood, Needles, Fauquier, Burton, 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, Complix and Beaton. North of Arrowhead, the lake narrowed and became the Columbia River again, up to the next major town, which was Revelstoke.

Steamboats placed on the route

The first steamboat on the route was the Forty-Nine, built to service a brief gold rush on the Big Bend of the Columbia River. When the gold rush ended, Forty-Nine was withdrawn.[4][5] After that, the small steam launch Alpha ran supplies up to Revelstoke (then called Farwell) where the Canadian Pacific Railway was building a crossing over the Columbia River for its transcontinental line. In 1885, a much larger vessel, the sternwheeler Kootenai, was built at Little Dalles, Washington Terr., 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. Dispatch 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.[6]

The owners of the Columbia Transportation Company brought in some bigger businessmen, J.A. Mara, Frank S. Barnard, 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 flowed into the Columbia, for a railroad that the CPR was building from the landing to Nelson on Kootenay Lake.[7]

Images

Lytton

Nakusp

Rossland

Minto

Kootenay

Bonnington

List of Vessels

The following steamboats and related vessels operated on these lakes:

Steamboats and other vessels on the Arrow Lakes, British Columbia[8][9]
Name Type Year Built Where Built Builders/Owners Hull Gross Tons Reg. Tons Length Beam Draft Engines Disposition
Forty-Nine sternwheeler 1865 Colville Landing, WA wood 219 114'
Alpha steam launch 1882 Hong Kong[10] teak
Dispatch sternwheeler 1888 Revelstoke Columbia Transportation Co. wood 37 23 54' ~22'[11] 4.5' 8"x24" Last used as snag boat, dismantled 1893, engines to Illecillewaet.
Marion sternwheeler circa 1888 Columbia Transportation Co. wood ~50'
Lytton sternwheeler 1890 Revelstoke Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Co. wood 452 285 131' 25.5' 4.8' 16'x62" Dismantled 1902
Kootenai sternwheeler 1885 Little Dalles Henderson & McCartney wood 558 351 140' 25' 14"x72" Grounded and so badly damaged no economic repair possible. Dismantled 1895 at Nakusp following grounding, engines and equipment to Trail
Columbia sternwheeler 1891 Little Dalles A. Watson, for Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Co. wood 534[12] 351 153' 28' 6.3' 18"x72" Burned, 1894, total loss
Illecillewaet sternwheeler 1892 Revelstoke Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Co. wood 98 62 78' 15' 4' 8"x24" (from Dispatch) Sold for scrap, 1902
Nakusp sternwheeler 1895 Nakusp T. Bulger, for Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Co. wood 1083 832 171' 33.5' 6.3' 20"x72" Destroyed by fire at dock at Arrowhead, BC, 23 Dec 1897
Trail sternwheeler 1896 Nakusp wood 165'
Columbia passenger tug wood
Kootenay sternwheeler 1897 Nakusp wood 1117 184'
Rossland sternwheeler 1897 Nakusp wood 884 183' sank 1918
Minto sternwheeler 1898 Nakusp[13] wood on steel frames 830 162' abandoned on beach, later deliberately burned.
Whatsan passenger tug wood
Bonnington sternwheeler 1911 Nakusp[14] steel 1700 203' Dismantled 1946
Columbia passenger tug wood
Nipigonian motor launch steel
Widget diesel tug steel
Columbia motor pass. tug steel

Notes

  1. ^ The lakes are now merged into one lake by the construction of a hydroelectric dam
  2. ^ Timmen, Fritz, Blow for the Landing, at page 228, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID 1973 ISBN0-87004-221-1
  3. ^ Timmen, at 228
  4. ^ Mills, Randall V., Sternwheelers up Columbia, page 86, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 1947 ISBN 0-8032-5874-7
  5. ^ Turner, Robert D., Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs, page 1, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, BC 1984 ISBN 0-919203-15-9
  6. ^ Turner, Sternwheelers, at 1-2
  7. ^ Turner, Sternwheelers, at 4-6
  8. ^ Turner, Robert D., Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs, pages 251-263, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, BC 1984 ISBN 0-919203-15-9
  9. ^ Mills, Randall V., Sternwheelers up Columbia, pages 189-203, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (1947) ISBN 0-8032--5874-7
  10. ^ shipped to Spokane Falls, carried overland to Colville Landing, and launched there circa 1884
  11. ^ twin hulled catamaran
  12. ^ Mills gives 529. Turner is the better authority on these boats.
  13. ^ Prefabricated components of hull were manufactured in Ontario, then shipped west, where they were assembled. Upper works were built from scratch at Nakusp.
  14. ^ Prefabricated components of hull were manufactured in Ontario, then shipped west, where they were assembled. Upper works were built from scratch at Nakusp.

Further reading

  • Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier, (1st Ed.), Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972
  • Mills, Randall V., Sternwheelers up Columbia, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 1947 ISBN 0-8032-5874-7
  • Timmen, Fritz, Blow for the Landing, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, ID 1973 ISBN0-87004-221-1
  • Turner, Robert D., Sternwheelers and Steam Tugs, Sono Nis Press, Victoria, BC 1984 ISBN 0-919203-15-9

See Also

External Links

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