Mining Boom On The Upper Kootenay River
A mining boom along the upper Kootenay river in the early 1890s led to a demand for shipping to transport miners and supplies into, and ore out of, the region surrounding the river. The Great Northern Railway at Jennings, Montana was the nearest downriver railhead for upper Kootenay shipping.
Armstrong moved south from the Columbia to the Kootenay, and built the small sternwheeler Gwendoline at Hansen's Landing, about 12 miles (19 km) north of the present community of Wasa. Instead of taking the ore south to the Jennings, Armstrong's plan was to move the ore north across Canal Flats and then down the Columbia to the CPR railhead at Golden. Armstrong took Gwendoline through the Baillie-Grohman Canal in the fall of 1893 (or rolled her across Canal Flats), fitted her out at Golden, and returned back through the canal in the spring of 1894.
The difficulty of moving Gwendoline through the Canal convinced Armstrong that the only feasible route was south to Jennings. By early 1896, Armstrong joined with veteran Willamette River steamboat captain James D. Miller and built Ruth (named after Armstrong's daughter) at Libby, Montana. Ruth was the largest steamer yet to operate on the upper Kootenay River. Later, Armstrong and Miller associated with Wardner, and, when their competitors, DePuy and Jones suffered the misfortune of having their new vessel Rustler (125 tons) sunk after just six weeks of operation, the three men were able to dominate the river traffic.
Read more about this topic: Frank P. Armstrong
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