| Before the railway, oil and gas, lumber and before widespread farming, the steamboats arrived in Edmonton and, for a little place hanging on by its fingernails, they were exactly what it needed. If it hadnt been for the steamboats, Edmonton might never have got going. It is a part of our past every bit as significant as the coming of the fur traders, the Oblate Missionaries, the Klondike Gold Rush, the arrival of the railway and the discovery of oil. Yet most Edmontonians have probably never heard much about it. During the fur trade era, a succession of crafts plied the waters of the North Saskatchewan River. The North West Company used the light, streamlined and comfortably portaged North Canoes. From about 1797, its fur trading competitor, the Hudsons Bay Company, utilized primarily York Boats - shallow-draft boats with flat bottoms, capable of hauling twice the capacity of the North Canoe. In 1873, steamboats were introduced by the Hudsons Bay Company to replace the less efficient method of shipping by York Boat and the transportation of goods kicked into high gear. History in Edmonton - whose population, including dogs and chickens, was 100 on a good day - was soon to be made. The Hudsons Bay Company was determined to establish a river route the 940 mile distance from Grand Rapids (in the soon to be formed province of Manitoba) to Edmonton. But three miles of rough water at the mouth of the Saskatchewan Rapids at Grand Rapids in the soon to be formed province of Manitoba precluded that. And so the company built a tramway and goods were loaded onto the tram and thus continued on their journey up the Saskatchewan River. When the Hudsons Bay Companys S.S. Northcote steamed into Edmonton on July 22nd, 1875, it forever changed life. To say it marked the beginning of a new era in the fledgling community is an understatement. There are no newspaper accounts of the day, but its safe to say there was party that night. The Northcote was the first steamboat to successfully ascend the river and its 130 tons of cargo made a big impact on the townsfolk. From then forward, whenever the water on the river was deep enough, Edmonton was the upper terminus of a line of steamboat communication starting at Winnipeg. | The vessel, constructed in Grand Rapids, Manitoba, from timber milled in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was unlike anything ever before seen on the North Saskatchewan. Fully 150 feet long, 28.5 feet wide, with a registered tonnage of 290.63 and a gross tonnage of 461.34, the Northcote was based on the sternwheelers of the Mississippi River in the United States. Her construction was directed by Captain J. Reeves, an experienced boat builder from Grand Forks. The Northcote was named for Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, Governor of the Hudsons Bay Company from March 1869 to March 1874. The Northcote turned out to be more than a vessel to carry freight and passengers. During the 1885 Riel Rebellion, she served as a gunboat at the Battle of Batoche. The coming of the railway and difficulties navigating ever changing river channels sounded the death knell for steamboats on the North Saskatchewan. The last commercial runs were made in 1886 and the Northcote was beached at Cumberland House that year. She was left to rot until, years later, nothing but her boilers remained. Another sternwheeler, the Northwest, was pulled up on timbers at Walters Flat (now Walterdale) in 1898. A year later, when the river flooded in August, the Northwest - known in her heyday as the Greyhound of the Saskatchewan - was lifted from her moorings and carried downstream, smashing into the centre pier of the net yet completed Low Level Bridge. In his book Edmonton, A History, J.G. MacGregor describes what happened. For ten minutes she hung there and then, ever so slowly, her sides smashed in and her back broken, she swung free and set out on her last run down the river she had known so well. Three days later, 100 miles downstream, she was still recognizable as she passed the mouth of Saddle Creek, thenceforth to be seen no more. Other steamboats did follow - most notably John Walters City of Edmonton, which Ill explain next week. If youd like to offer your thoughts, please drop me an email at lawrenceherzog@hotmail.com For information on reprints of previously published articles, check out my website at www.lawrenceherzog.com.
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