The Last Sternwheelers in Canada

[gmctavish]

I was inspired by ranwhenparked to share with you all the very few sternwheelers that are left up here.
None are operational, unfortunately, and only one is still in the water.
There are a couple more recently built sternwheelers for excursion purposes, but I don't count those.

The title says Canada, but the only sternwheelers I can find are here in BC, and in the Yukon. If there are any more surviving elsewhere in Canada, I can't find them.

SS Moyie, Kaslo, BC
Operator: Canadian Pacific Railway
Launched: 1898
Retired: 1957

Photo courtesy of ClassicDatsunDebate

The Moyie is the oldest intact passenger sternwheeler in the world, apparently, but not the oldest sternwheeler.
She is however the oldest intact wooden-hulled sternwheeler in Canada. She, along with many other sternwheelers, was built for the Canadian Pacific Railway to expand their reach past the rails, and develop further into the interior of BC. The CPRs grand goals never quite came to fruition, but they did have many ships plying the lakes and rivers of BC for a few decades.
She ran an 87 mile route up and down Kootenay Lake, in regular service until 1957. When she was retired, the 700-strong town of Kaslo bought her from the CPR for $1, restored her, and set her up as a museum. She's now a National Historic Site of Canada.

The Moyie racing the Kuskanook

SS Sicamous, Penticton, BC
Operator: Canadian Pacific Railway
Launched: 1914
Retired: 1937

The Sicamous is the only steel-hulled sternwheeler left in Canada. She was in regular service on Lake Okanagan beteen Penticton and Okanagan Landing (Now absorbed by Vernon).
She and her two sister ships, Bonnington, and Nasookin, were the largest sternwheelers built in BC. Unfortunately, towards the end of her career, the Sicamous had a deck-ectomy, losing one whole deck, and a bit more than half of another deck. The idea was to make room for more freight, but that only extended her career by 1 or 2 years. The museum that owns her has plans to rebuild the decks, eventually.
After retirement, she was tied up at Okanagan Landing until 1951, until the City of Penticton bought her from the CPR and towed her back to Penticton. A trench was dug for beaching, and that's where she's been since then. She is now a museum, as well as a main attraction for Penticton with a proud spot on the beach, and can be rented for events. I've been on her several times, I go almost every time I'm in or near Penticton.

Here's the Sicamous beside the Minto, a sister ship of the Moyie, for size reference. You can also see what she looked like with all her decks.

Here's the only colour shot of the Bonnington I've ever seen, gives a good idea of the height and size with the rail car for reference.

Samson V, New Westminster, BC
Operator: Federal Department of Public Works
Launched: 1937
Retired: 1980

The Samson V is a snagboat, equipped with an A-frame and winches, she cleared debris in the Fraser River for 43 years, the 5th in a line of Samsons doing the same job since 1884.
She was the last steam powered sternwheeler operating in Canada, and supposedly the last completely intact, floating, wooden-hulled sternwheeler in North America. That doesn't sound right to me, but maybe all those American sternwheelers are steel-hulled, or are no longer considered intact?
She is at least the last steam powered sternwheeler floating in Canada.
The Samson is now a museum, docked in New West. I've been once when I was younger, and I've been wanting to go again soon. I'll take some photos, since good photos of her are nearly impossible to find.

SS Keno, Dawson City, Yukon
Operator: British Yukon Navigation Co
Launched: 1922
Retired: 1951

She was built in Whitehorse for the BYN Co, a subsidiary of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway. She was mainly a cargo vessel to bring food to, and silver from remote mines on the Stewart River.
She and 3 other vessels were laid up at Whitehorse in 1955, but in 1960, she was refloated, and became the last sternwheeler to navigate the Yukon River under her own power. She was permanently drydocked in Dawson City, restored, and made a National Historic Site of Canada.

SS Klondike, Whitehorse, Yukon
Operator: British Yukon Navigation Co
Launched: 1937
Retired: 1955

The Klondike is actually the Klondike II, but contains the salvaged running gear from the Klondike I. She is 70' longer than the Keno, and like the Keno, and all other Yukon sternwheelers, was retired after the highway was finished between Whitehorse and Dawson City. She was donated to Parks Canada, who in 1966 decided to move her from the shipyard in Whitehorse to her current location.....over the streets of Whitehorse. Details change depending on the site, but it looks like the move was completed with 3 or 4 Cats, steel plates and/or beams, and logs and/or planks, greased with 8 tons of Palmolive soap....over a period of 3 weeks.

She was painstakingly restored, by much of the same team that restored the Keno, starting in 1974, and opened as a museum in 1981.

Modern Diesel Sternwheelers
Heritage Park in Calgary, Alberta, has an all steel sternwheeler that was built in 1965. She is also called the Moyie, and they say she's a replica, but I'll say she's inspired by the Moyie.
When I was a kid I got to ride in the wheelhouse, and steer for about 20 minutes, that was pretty fun.

A river tour company in New West has a sternwheeler built in 1988, called the MV Native. They say she's a replica of a sternwheeler that was built in 1863, but I don't know which one, and they don't have any photos or info about that.

I'll leave you with another shot of the Sicamous, because she's my favourite

[WhoIsTheLeader]

And all this came about because I posted a picture here of a paddle wheeler in New Orleans. Fascinating stuff. I commend you on your research. Often times these things are harder to research than you might expect.

[ranwhenparked]

@gmctavish Canadian Pacific was a crazy company at its height - cargo ships and ocean liners on both the Pacific and Atlantic, a transcontinental railroad, riverboat and coastal steamers in British Columbia, and the luxury hotel chain to serve it all. You could travel due west from England all the way to Hong Kong on one CPR fare package (with several mode switches en route), really an amazing network for the days before airplanes.

Great to see some traces of their shipping heritage have survived, since there's quite a bit on land to compliment it.

[gmctavish]

@ranwhenparked said in The Last Sternwheelers in Canada:

@gmctavish Canadian Pacific was a crazy company at its height - cargo ships and ocean liners on both the Pacific and Atlantic, a transcontinental railroad, riverboat and coastal steamers in British Columbia, and the luxury hotel chain to serve it all. You could travel due west from England all the way to Hong Kong on one CPR fare package (with several mode switches en route), really an amazing network for the days before airplanes.

Great to see some traces of their shipping heritage have survived, since there's quite a bit on land to compliment it.

It really was. I was planning on expanding more on the CPRs role in sternwheelers in Canada, but that's enough to be a post on its own. Not sure when I'll get to it, but I'd like to write about the activities of the CPR and how they affected local development.

[RacinBob]

Actually, the Lone Star in LeClaire Iowa is older than the Moyie.

Lone Star Steamer was built in 1869 at Lyons, Iowa for Captain Sam Mitchell*.

http://www.buffalobillmuseumleclaire.com/save/LoneStarSteamer_print.htm

https://steamboats.com/museum/davet-photoslonestar.html

[gmctavish]

@racinbob said in The Last Sternwheelers in Canada:

Actually, the Lone Star in LeClaire Iowa is older than the Moyie.

Lone Star Steamer was built in 1869 at Lyons, Iowa for Captain Sam Mitchell*.

http://www.buffalobillmuseumleclaire.com/save/LoneStarSteamer_print.htm

https://steamboats.com/museum/davet-photoslonestar.html

She is, but that's a towboat, not a passenger steamer. Still, I'll adjust my post a bit

[RacinBob]

Aha, we are both right!!!!!

[Someoneatacura]

So you would have loved my grandpa on my moms side. Wrote several books about the stern wheelers operating in BC.

https://abcbookworld.com/writer/parent-milton/

Won the lieutenant governor s medal for historical writing. They both ran the historical society in Nakusp BC until he passed in 2012. She remained as long as she could but ended up moving to the coast a couple years back to be closer to family and near modern medical facilities.