In 1864, the first sternwheeler to ply the waters of the Skeena was the UNION, commanded by Captain Coffin under contract to the Collins Overland Telegraph Company. They'd hoped that the UNION would deliver their construction supplies inland, unfortunately, she only made it up 90 miles on the Skeena, where the present town of Terrace sits.
In 1866, the Collins Overland Telegraph Company built the MUMFORD and sent her up the Skeena, but she only made it to the mouth of the Kitsumgalem River, a distance of 110 miles.
)
No further attempts at steamboating
happened until 1891, when the Hudson's Bay Company decided to take a chance on the Skeena.
They built the CALEDONIA, 100 feet long and 26 feet wide.
Commanded by Captain Odin, she made it as far as Kitselas Canyon - the toughest spot on
the Skeena to navigate: not much wider than a steamboat with rock walls on both sides.
To help fight their way up the turbulent rapids, ringbolts were anchored in the rocks on shore. The sternwheelers would attach one end of a cable or line to these ringbolts and then wrap the other end around the boat's capstan on deck and pull themselves up the rapids. This made upstream trips last about two to three days, while the trip back could be made in less than one.
HAZELTON at Ringbolt Island
Image Courtesy of BC Archives - Detail of Call #D-01864
After high water subsided, Captain Odin and his son, a captain as well, struggled their way through the canyon and made it to Hazelton. The CALEDONIA made one more trip up the Skeena that season, after which her skipper resigned. Her next skipper was Captain Bonser, who after one season, recommended that the CALEDONIA be lengthened by 30 feet. She then operated as the sole steamboat on the Skeena until 1900.
In 1900, Robert Cunningham, who owned a business in Port Essington and a store at Hazelton, decided to take on the Hudson's Bay Company in steamboating. He hired Captain Bonser from them and bought the MONTE CRISTO. In 1901, Captain Bonser designed the sternwheeler HAZELTON, a fine, trim vessel that was perfectly suited for the Skeena and quickly proved far superior to the CALEDONIA and other Hudson's Bay Company vessels.
In response, the Hudson's Bay Company built the MOUNT ROYAL who under Captain Johnson's command, became an intense rival of the HAZELTON and the race was on. This rivalry proved so intense that in 1904, the two skippers staged an on-river battle scene: the HAZELTON ramming the MOUNT ROYAL provoking her skipper to fire his rifle over the bow of the HAZELTON. Even though these charades delighted passengers on both boats, the Hudson's Bay Company and Robert Cunningham decided this sort of rivalry was not profitable. The Hudson's Bay Company offered Robert Cunningham $2500 a year for three years to take the HAZELTON off her Skeena run, they would haul his freight for free and they had an option to purchase the vessel at a given figure - an option they had to exercise three years later.
In 1907, the MOUNT ROYAL met her demise in Kitselas Canyon, drowning six crewmen, so the Hudson's Bay Company bought the HAZELTON from Robert Cunningham and put her back into service. The following year, the PORT SIMPSON was built as a replacement for the MOUNT ROYAL.
Some of the Skeena River sternwheeler fleet were built primarily to haul construction supplies for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. These vessels were the: DISTRIBUTOR, CONVEYOR, OMINECA, and OPERATOR. The SKEENA was operated by P. Burns & Co., which was contracted to supply meat to all the construction camps in the valley.
The smallest vessel to come up the Skeena was the CRAIGFLOWER, only 65 feet long, she proved hopelessly underpowered for the turbulent waters. For this reason, she was nicknamed "Cauliflower" by the locals. Another steamer that only made one trip up the Skeena to Hazelton was the CASCA.
On June 1, 1910, the INLANDER was the last sternwheeler to join the Skeena River trade. She was built and operated by a company of Hazelton merchants, to ensure delivery of their freight in the booming business of the area. Not a pretty boat to look at, but she was very good for fast water. She was commanded by Captain Bucey for her first season, and then Captain Bonser took over her last two seasons. In September 1912, the INLANDER was the last sternwheeler to leave Hazelton and sail into history.
Yet even as the sternwheeler days were coming to an end on the Skeena due to the railway they helped build, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was fading too. Its president, Charles M. Hays, drowned in the Titanic disaster on April 12, 1912 and without his leadership, the railway slid into bankruptcy. Later that year the company was taken over by the federal government and became part of the Canadian National Railway.
Once the railway was completed in 1913, the sternwheelers job was done on the Skeena since supplies could now be easily transported to inland areas from the coast.
"The
sternwheelers have long since gone. They passed on, piled up on rocks and sandbars
broken beyond repair, jackknifed in the canyons, were sucked under by gigantic whirlpools,
or blown to pieces and burned by bursting boilers, all in a great pioneer struggle for
trade and development of a vast new wilderness country. The fast vanishing
old-timers still speak of them wistfully, as though they were sweet women of a colorful
past."
)
Sternwheelers at Prince Rupert
Image Courtesy of BC Archives - Detail of Call #B-01489
Sternwheelers
Pack Trains
Area Map
Credits Glossary Development Team Feedback Home
This
digital collection was produced under contract to the