Decline of Steamboat Business
The years of World War I (1914–1918) were hard on the steamboats, as the young men that would otherwise man them or work at businesses in the area volunteered for military service, and travel and tourism fell off in general. Bonnington and other steamers did carry troops recruited locally to military training, but this work could not make up for the general decline in business. Bonnington was to be the last sternwheeler built on the Arrow Lakes. As railroads and roads entered the area, and people moved to the cities, business went into decline, so that by 1930, there were only three vessels running passenger service on the Arrow Lakes, the Bonnington, the Minto and the all-purpose propeller steamboat Columbia.
Read more about this topic: Bonnington (sternwheeler)
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