Elegance On The Fraser 100 Years Ago

Elegance On The Fraser 100 Years Ago
by Marilyn Wheeler, 2010
As you relax for a picnic by the Fraser River near McBride this summer, or perhaps drift along in a canoe, imagine that a hiss of steam and churning paddle blades make you look up to see a towering white ship appear around the curve. Exactly one hundred years ago, this was a common sight when flood water made the river navigable. Scheduled sternwheelers such as the BC Express carried hundreds of people and many tons of freight between Soda Creek, Fort George and Tete Jaune.

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) was being built across the country, and it arrived in the Yellowhead Pass late in 1911. That year the railway contractors, Foley, Welch and Stewart, decided to to gain more control over the movement of their goods by moving two of their own sternwheelers from the Skeena River to the upper Fraser. The boats steamed down the coast to Vancouver where they were dismantled, sent on ten Canadian Pacific Railway cars to Calgary, up to Edmonton and west to the end of steel near Moose Lake. From there the sternwheeler parts had to go go down the tote road to Tete Jaune Cache. The next time you ride the train or drive from Moose Lake to Tete Jaune junction, imagine a team of 16 horses skidding each massive 25 ton boiler over the rough forest trail! Their destination was a shipyard a few miles west at old Tete Jaune.

There the Conveyor and the Operator were quickly rebuilt, and launched into high water in May 1912. They joined the other steamers for the next two summers, stopping at many docks along the river, including Mile 90 (McBride). Fine dining, uniformed crew, and elegance on the upper deck must have been welcome sights in the wilderness. Sadly this was short-lived. The railway they helped to create made some river bridges too low in 1913, bringing to an end this extraordinary service through the valley.

Fortunately people took photos. Visit the McBride railway station to see enlargements of these images from the Valley Museum and Archives, and books with photos and stories in the Whistle Stop Gallery.
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