Media Exhibits
It’s hard to imagine a time when stern wheeled steamboats plied the South Saskatchewan River. To do so requires one to think of an age before processed fossil fuels and the automobile, back to oxen trains and the Red River cart. Only then can the viability of river transportation on the prairies be comprehended. Water transport by canoe had been used for centuries by First Nation’s People, but it was the invention of the steam engine that dramatically increased the size of boats used on inland waterways. On the South Saskatchewan River there were two eras of steamboats plying its waters, each unique.
Curiously it was the arrival of the steam powered railway in 1883 that heralded development of the first steamboats at Medicine Hat. At the time it appeared that the junction of the railway and river would have commercial importance. Upstream and to the west, Sir Alexander Galt had just entered into a lucrative contract with the C.P.R. to bring coal from Lethbridge to Medicine Hat. His first attempt by horse and wagon, although successful was impractical, as an army of men and wagons were needed for the one hundred mile journey. This experience gave way to the simple idea of floating coal down stream on barges and then hauling them back with steamboats. This was the impetus for the construction of the "Baroness". Named for one of Galt’s wealthy British shareholders, the boat was the largest vessel ever on the South Saskatchewan. At 171 feet in length, thirty feet wide and weighing 360 tons fully loaded, she had a formidable presence on the river. Her fifty horsepower steam locomotive engine was added just in time for the first train crossing the river at Medicine Hat.
Meanwhile to the east the Winnipeg & Western Transportation Company had just sent the steamboat Lily to explore the south branch of the river. The company which had been plying the North Saskatchewan for ten years was eager to expand. The Lily was a fine Scottish built vessel, with a steel hull and ten state rooms on the upper deck. Measuring 100 feet long and 24 feet wide, it was smaller than the Baroness but still weighed in at over 100 tons empty. She arrived in Medicine Hat on August 3, 1883, just as the Baroness was preparing to set off on her maiden voyage to Lethbridge.
Unfamiliar with the changing water levels of the South Saskatchewan both parties were surprised as the river dropped six inches in two days. In spite of this the determined Galt set off for Lethbridge to bring his first load of coal. The waters must have been hazardously shallow as he was able to return with only one light load.
Meanwhile, the Lily took on sixty five tons of supplies which combined with the falling water made her eighteen inches closer to the bottom. Despite this, she set off bound for Prince Albert on August 29. Several hours later at Drowning Ford a submerged rock tore an eight foot hole in her starboard side. In minutes the boat sank, with all hands on board – in three feet of water. Stranded, the crew proceeded downstream in rowboats taking several days to make it to the newly formed colony at Saskatoon. The Lily was a total wreck and was written off by her insurers for $20,000. Her remains littered the riverbank for the next fifty years and were slowly carried away by successive spring floods.
In the fall of 1883, undeterred by this disaster and his own meagre results, Galt set about revising his plan. He would just have to haul more coal earlier in the next season. To do this he would need two more vessels and twenty one additional barges. In the spring of 1884 the steamboat "Alberta" was the first to appear. Named for the same Royal Princess as the future province, the boat was assembled by experienced Missouri riverboat men with oak shipped in from Minnesota. Similar in size to the Lily, she was 100 feet long and twenty feet wide with a thirty horsepower engine. Next was the tug boat "Minnow" brought in on a railway flat car from Winnipeg. Measuring in at 73 feet long and ten feet wide with a mighty six horsepower engine, she would provide assistance manoeuvring the barges along the water way. The fleet was ready for the start of high water on the May 24, 1884.
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