|
Sternwheeler, Fraser River, 1925
We have several sizes of limited edition Giclées on paper and canvas available for retail, wholesale and bulk discounts.
Please use the Contact Form and ask for our latest Price List. |
The BC Express sternwheeler, near Fort George, British Columbia, 1925. Reference was supplied by the Maritime Museum, Victoria, BC. Sternwheelers were as North American as the North West Mounted Police and the birchbark canoe. They seem to have evolved originally on the Mississippi river about 1817. They then came west during the 1849 California gold rush and eventually worked their way north and appeared on the Fraser River about 1858. These first paddlewheelers in BC were sidewheelers but these soon gave way to the sternwheeler, which proved much superior and were used almost exclusively. The sternwheeler era in British Columbia lasted about one hundred years and during this time three hundred or so flat-bottomed river steamers left their wake on virtually every major lake and river in Canada's western province. The British Columbia Express Company brought in three new sternwheelers to move freight between Tete Juane and South Fort George in 1912. These were the "Operator", "Conveyor" and "BC Express" and were the largest to appear on the Upper Fraser. Each would carry two hundred passengers and two hundred tons of freight. By 1920 the day of the sternwheeler was over on the upper Fraser River. | 
