- Steamboats of the Peace River
The
Peace River was navigable by boat from the Rocky Mountain Falls atHudson's Hope toFort Vermilion , where there was another set of rapids, then via the lower Peace from Vermilion toLake Athabaska . The Peace is part of the larger river complex of theAthabasca Basin , Slave, andMacKenzie River s.The Athabaska had large rapids too at Grande Rapids and
Fort Smith ; in this way the rivers were sectional as various boats worked upper and lower sections. The Peace River system was the western arm of the complex. Travellers to the Peace would pack orRed River Cart fromFort Edmonton eighty miles north toAthabaska Landing . Boats bound for the Peace block would travel all the way north on the Athabaska River toLake Athabaska , to get to the mouth of the Peace and then turn around southwest again. Traditionally, canoes provided transport in the area.The first motorized vessel on the Peace system was the SS "Grahame", built by the
Hudson's Bay Company inFort Chipewyan in the winter of 1882-83. She carried freight 200 miles up the Peace to Vermilion Chutes, where the company’s goods were portaged around the rapids and reloaded into a flotilla of scows and canoes for the journey onward."Fact|date=July 2008The steamboats in the early days of the province provided transport to move food and supplies in and wheat and livestock out the five hundred miles of the Peace and 250 miles of theAthabaska.
Rolla , Taylor, Dunvegan,Peace River, Alberta and Vermilion were put in points.ternwheelers
The Catholic mission at
Dunvegan ran the firststernwheeler , the "St. Charles" in 1902. Built forBishop Emile Grouard , her primary purpose was to aid him in his missionary work. She also carried goods for theNorth-West Mounted Police and the HBC.cite book |last=Downs |first=Art|title=Pioneer Days in British Columbia Volume 2|year=1975-1979|publisher=Heritage House and main author Harold Fryer|isbn=0-919214-68-1|pages= rp|120] In 1905, the HBC launched a sternwheeler of their own, the "Peace River". Built at Fort Vermilion, this 110 foot long vessel could carry forty tons of freight and worked on the Peace River for ten years.rp|123, until she was taken through the rapids below Fort Vermilion.Steamboats had a limited season, often making only making 3 or 4 trips a year. These trips up and down the river would take several weeks, depending on conditions and sand bars. Boats did not travel at night due to limited visibility.Wood was the traditional fuel and these sternwheelers could burn as much as three or four cords of wood per hour. Paying passengers had no guarantee of a leisurely trip; although contractors were hired to cut and stack cordwood along the river, the sternwheelers often burned wood in such enormous quantities that the passengers would be called into service and set ashore with crosscuts and axes to replenish the wood supply.rp|127 The season was short due to winter and ice up and the boats had to be pulled from the water in winter to avoid destruction by the ice.As development came late, with the
Peace River Block only being opened up about 1910, so followed the steamboats. The "Grenfell" was built in 1912 at Peace River, but sadly sunk two years later. The "Northland Call" was also made in Peace River and ran for half a dozen years in the teens. The "D.A Thomas" was built in 1915 byBaron Rhondda of Wales, the British Peerage name for same D.A Thomas, who was a coal baron in the British Isles. He wanted to exploit the coal and oil deposits of Chetwynd, and so built the 168 foot, huge leviathan. She was quite unsuccessful owing to theFirst World War , although she ran until 1929.rp|127 The "D.A. Thomas" steamed proudly up and down the Peace until the late 1920’s, but the expansion of rail into the area finally made her uneconomic and obsolete. In June of 1930 she took the drop over the Vermilion Chutes, suffering some damage on the rocks, and then limped on toFort Fitzgerald . There, she was dismantled and scrapped with parts being used for other purposes including storing grain - an inglorious end for a fine ship. Other sternwheelers of that era included the "Pine Pass", the "Northland Echo" and the "Lady Macworth", sister ship to the "D.A. Thomas".rp|127End of an era
For the years from 1915 to 1925 Peace River became the easier route to the north and Peace River became the shipping off point. The boats were transferred to the upper and lower Peace, and the Slave River. At this time the HBC ran all their boats down the Peace to the Mackenzie River chain, boats like the "Prospector" and "Distributor", which were useful in the war for the
Norman Wells Canol project. The Hudson Bay boats steamed until 1948.The arrival of the
Model T Ford , andbulldozer , and gravelled roads, finished the river steamers in the Peace. Also, theEdmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway worked its way to BC and arrived inDawson Creek in 1930, completely doing in the steamboat era. Farther east theNorthern Alberta Railway and the Alberta Northern Waterways railway bypassed the worst rapids on the Upper Athabaska by rail and thus made Waterways, or modernFort McMurray , the transport head for the Peace. Other Railways--the Central Canada and Pembina--tried to alleviate transport woes but became weakened by theDepression .Smaller boats of various kinds continued to work on the Peace for another 20 years, but the age of steamboats was gone. The final commercial freight run up the Peace was made by the "Watson Lake", a steel-hulled vessel, in September of 1952. Her last trip completed, she was hauled out of the water and loaded on a flatcar and shipped by rail to waterways to continue work up north.
The
US Army built a diesel paddler for tug service on the Peace in 1942. It worked on the raising of thePeace River Bridge (part of theAlaska Highway ), the re-located and exiled bad boy bridge ofTacoma Narrows Bridge .Fact|date=September 2008 It promptly collapsed again in 1957.ee also
*
David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda
*Steamboats of the Mackenzie River
*Steamboats of the Upper Fraser River
*Steamboats of the Skeena River Notes
Further reading
* "Pioneer Days in British Columbia Volume Two" Art Downs and Harold Fryer ISBN 0-9690546-2-9
External links
* [http://archive1.lse.ualberta.ca/asp/list_items.aspx?FileName=72-81-7-1-9%5B425-536%5D Gallery of Peace River steamboats, University of Alberta Archives]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.