In many parts of the interior of British Columbia the navigable rivers and lakes make water transport practical. From the 1860s until the completion of railway lines and later the modern highway system, paddle wheel boats were the most efficient means of moving people and freight in many parts of the interior. These boats remained an important part of the province's transportation system right into this century, with the last steam boats being retired in the 1950s.

The most important waterways for steam boat transport were the Fraser River below and above the rough waters of the canyon., the Thompson River and Shuswap Lakes, Okanagan Lake, the Columbia River, the Arrow Lakes, Kootenay Lake, the Skeena River, Atlin Lake, and Babine Lake.

	The paddlewheeler SS Onward near Yale on the lower Fraser River in 1867.
A-00102

Yale was the end of navigation for most river boats and the beginning of the Cariboo Road. Passengers and freight were unloaded here and transferred to wagons and stagecoaches.

	Sternwheel river boat on the Fraser River at Soda Creek in the Cariboo in 1868.
Detail of A-03908

Above the rough waters of the Fraser canyon riverboats were practicable once again.

	A steamboat docked at yale during construction of the CPR in 1882.
Detail of A-03579

Continued...