Chilcotin (sternwheeler) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The 
''Chilcotin'' was launched on July 20, 1910 and was put under the command of Captain Arthur Francis Dogherty. She made her first trip up to Fort George that August, but on the return trip to Soda Creek, she had an accident in the Fort George Canyon and had to be taken back to South Fort George. The vessel was laid up at South Fort George for the rest of the season.
In 1911, ''Chilcotin'' was overhauled and put under the command of DA Foster, who was also the captain of the sternwheeler . That season she would make several trips up the Fraser to
sternwheeler
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...
''Chilcotin'' was built for the Soda Creek
Soda Creek is a rural subdivision 38 km north of Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Located on the east bank of the Fraser River, Soda Creek was originally the home of the Xat'sull First Nation. Soda Creek Indian Reserve No. 1 is ...
to Fort George route of the upper Fraser River
The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...
. She was built by shipbuilder Donald McPhee for the Fort George Lumber and Navigation Company, which was a partnership held by Nick Clarke and Russell Peden of the South Fort George
South Fort George is a suburb of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.
Before the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914, the Prince George area was known as Fort George and was a Lheidli T'enneh village and Hudson's Bay Company st ...
town-site of Fort George. ''Chilcotin'' was the largest of the company's three sternwheelers and was intended to run as competition against the BC Express Company's new luxury sternwheeler, . ''Chilcotin'' had main, promenade and Texas decks, hot and cold running water and stateroom accommodation for fifty.
She was built at Soda Creek in late 1909 and early 1910, downstream from where the BC Express Company were building ''BX''. A friendly rivalry quickly developed between the two construction camps and as soon as ''Chilcotin''s builders learned that ''BX'' was going to be wider than ''Chilcotin'', they teased the workers from the other camp, saying that ''BX'' would never fit through the narrow channels of the Cottonwood and Fort George canyons and called her the "White Elephant". This rumor spread far past the town of Soda Creek and soon the employees of the BC Express Company found themselves being consoled by their friends and associates for "having built a dud". However, ''BX'' proved to be a far superior craft and ''Chilcotin'', was never much competition to her.
''Chilcotin'' was launched on July 20, 1910 and was put under the command of Captain Arthur Francis Dogherty. She made her first trip up to Fort George that August, but on the return trip to Soda Creek, she had an accident in the Fort George Canyon and had to be taken back to South Fort George. The vessel was laid up at South Fort George for the rest of the season.
In 1911, ''Chilcotin'' was overhauled and put under the command of DA Foster, who was also the captain of the sternwheeler . That season she would make several trips up the Fraser to Giscome Portage
The Giscome Portage was a portage between the Fraser River and Summit Lake, which connected with the river route to the Peace Country via Finlay Forks. BC Parks administers the Giscome Portage Trail. The Huble Homestead Historic Site, at the sou ...
and the Grand Canyon of the Fraser
The Grand Canyon of the Fraser is a short gorge on the upper Fraser River in the Robson Valley region of east central British Columbia. The location, about south-southwest of Hutton, became part of the Sugarbowl-Grizzly Den Provincial Park and ...
as well as working on the Soda Creek to Fort George route. However, unlike ''BX'' which could run this route on a twice-weekly basis, ''Chilcotin'' could only advertise a weekly service. ''Chilcotin'' worked on the upper Fraser until 1914, when, with the depressed economic conditions caused by World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and the halting of the construction of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
, her owners decided to retire her.
See also
*Steamboats of the Upper Fraser River in British Columbia
Twelve paddle steamer, paddlewheel steamboats plied the upper Fraser River in British Columbia from 1863 until 1921. They were used for a variety of purposes: working on railroad construction, delivering mail, promoting real estate in infant town ...
* List of ships in British Columbia
The following is a list of vessels notable in the history of the Canadian province of British Columbia, including Spanish, Russian, American and other military vessels and all commercial vessels on inland waters as well as on saltwater routes up to ...
Notes
References
* * * {{Steamboats British Columbia Paddle steamers of British Columbia 1910 ships