Steamboats Of The Peace River
The Peace River, which flows from the Rocky Mountain in British Columbia to Peace-Athabasca Delta and Lake Athabasca in Alberta, was navigable by late nineteenth and early twentieth century steamboats from the Rocky Mountain Falls at Hudson's Hope to Fort Vermilion, where there was another set of rapids, then via the lower Peace from Vermilion to Lake Athabaska. The Peace is part of the Mackenzie Basin, a larger river complex which includes the of the Athabasca, Slave, and MacKenzie Rivers.
The Athabasca had large rapids too at Grande Rapids and Fort Smith; in this way the rivers were sectional as various boats worked upper and lower sections. The Peace River system was the western arm of the complex. Travellers to the Peace would pack or Red River Cart from Fort Edmonton eighty miles north to Athabaska Landing. Boats bound for the Peace block would travel all the way north on the Athabasca River to Lake Athabasca, to get to the mouth of the Peace and then turn around southwest again. Traditionally, canoes provided transport in the area.
The first motorized vessel on the Peace system was the SS Grahame, built by the Hudson's Bay Company in Fort Chipewyan in the winter of 1882-83. She carried freight 200 miles (320 km) up the Peace to Vermilion Chutes, where the company’s goods were portaged around the rapids and reloaded into a flotilla of scows and canoes for the journey onward."
The steamboats in the early days of the province provided transport to move food and supplies in and wheat and livestock out the five hundred miles of the Peace and 250 miles (400 km) of the Athabasca. Rolla, Taylor, Dunvegan, Peace RIver Landing and Fort Vermilion were put-in points.
Read more about Steamboats Of The Peace River: Sternwheelers, End of An Era, List of Historic Vessels, See Also
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