Media Exhibits
The
golden era of steamboats on the South
Saskatchewan began nearly ten years after the first, driven entirely
by the personality of one man, Horatio Hamilton
Ross. Born in 1869, the wealthy son of Sir Charles and Lady Ross of Rossie Castle, he
had by age twenty-five run off to sea, sailed around Cape Horn, landed
in gold crazed San Francisco, trekked over land by wagon and
played polo in Calgary. There in 1897, he
built a thirty foot steam launch naming it the "Assiniboia". Intent on
sailing it to Winnipeg just for the adventure, he made it as far as
Medicine Hat where after several nights of partying with the locals
he decided to stay. Apparently the social life in the bustling town
was to his liking.
Well capitalized, the wealthy Ross proceeded to build the first Assiniboia Hotel in 1898 in addition to investing in a ranch. Never loosing sight of his boating interests, Captain Ross (as he was soon known) was often seen on excursions up and down the river. In 1903, he decided to expand and built his first stern wheeler naming it the "Assiniboia II". At seventy feet long and fifteen feet wide the craft was significantly larger than the first. Fitted out with a cabin and associated amenities, Ross was now able to enlarge his social gatherings and host entire parties on board. Then in 1905 on a whim, he decided to take the boat to Winnipeg. Ross made it nearly one thousand miles downstream before getting hung up in shallow swamp land at Cedar Lake just above Lake Winnipeg. Abandoning the boat, Ross and friends continued their journey by rail. That winter the boat was crushed by ice and when Ross returned in the spring there was little left to salvage.
Returning to Medicine Hat in 1906 Ross focused once again on boating. This time he devised a scheme to build a much larger boat. A joint stock company was formed and a number of city officials were convinced that a business case could be made for a large steam boat. The boat would be a multi-purpose vessel, able to haul coal from Lethbridge during spring high water and then used as a pleasure craft for the rest of the summer. To mark the official launch, a half day civic holiday was declared with most of the town showing up to witness the spectacle. The boat was christened the "City of Medicine Hat" by a young Isabel Cousins.
After a few trial runs up and down the river, the coal hauling expeditions were quietly abandoned after it was discovered that the boat could not make it over the rapids at Bow Island. However, that summer many social excursions were made to Galt Island where a pavilion was erected to entertain pleasure seekers and partiers. Occasionally a band was hired and towed in a barge to accompany the crowds on board. Desperate to make a go of it, Ross took on day jobs hauling drilling equipment for the blossoming natural gas industry. These were supplemented by evening and weekend social cruises which the captain truly lived for. “Attired in his white spotless ducks, a gregarious personality with an irrepressible effervescence, the captain assumed his most comfortable role – the river’s jovial host. With each twilight excursion and two Sunday outings at one o’clock and seven, Ross entertained a hundred passengers with whisky, orchestral music, and fine cigars. The summer of 1907 seemed an endless celebration.”
The financial success of the boat was another matter. At one point shareholder William Cousins questioned Ross about the monetary wisdom of providing free alcohol, amounting to more than the revenue from the excursion tickets. To top it off, the shareholders had never put any real money into the business opting instead to co-sign a bank loan to finance the construction. Now the bank was looking for settlement as the boat operations were not making payments. In the spring of 1908, tiring of the hotel business and bowing to pressure from the boats' shareholders, Ross sold the Assiniboia Hotel and offered to buy out the other owners. He had a new plan and was going to sail the vessel to Winnipeg and use it there as an excursion craft. As a parting gift he offered free passage for as many of his old friends as could fit on board.
With the river in full flood the steamboat set off the first week of June reaching Saskatoon in record time. There, a series of mishaps sealed the boats fate. First a submerged cable tore off the ships rudder. Floundering and steaming out of control it then hit a bridge pier and abruptly overturned in the swiftly moving flood water. Thankfully, all aboard escaped by clamoring onto the bridge. Nothing could be done for the boat however, as it lay pinned by the current against the bridge pier. Any hope of salvage disappeared when the boats superstructure and hull began to collapse from the powerful force marking the unfortunate and ignoble end of the steamboat the “City of Medicine Hat”.
Desperate to recapture his loss, Ross blamed the federal government for the submerged cable and sought compensation. Ottawa saw it differently and refused to pay instead offering Ross a plum job as fisheries inspector in Northern Manitoba. Accepting, he promptly purchased a fine propeller driven steel boat called the "Sam Brisbane" which he transported to Lake Winnipeg where he started another boating legacy. The waters in Northern Manitoba proved to be friendlier to Ross and he went on to build and purchase a number of boats used for shipping, prospecting and of course parties. During the height of prohibition when his social gatherings were threatened to become dry, Ross and friends formed the "Church of Omar" thus circumventing regulations as alcohol was allowed for religious celebrations.
For Medicine Hat however, it was the end of large vessels on the South Saskatchewan. For the second time the river had proven itself superior to the steamboats. From its raging spring waters to its all too soon meandering knee deep shallowness, the waterway was simply unsuitable for large scale navigation. Soon the railways would dominate transportation as spur lines were run to thousands of communities in the developing west. Adding to this, the upstart automobile was about to flourish and replace even the venerable horse and wagon. The steamboats were clearly outclassed by both the forces of nature and advancing technology.
Today, on a hot summer day, over one hundred years later, when you look upon the natural beauty of the valley and the slow moving river, it’s not hard to imagine that once upon a time, large stern wheeled steamboats plied the waterway in Medicine Hat.
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