North Star (sternwheeler 1897)

North Star on the Columbia River
History
Name:	North Star (US #130739)
Owner:	Upper Columbia Navigation & Tramway Co.
Route:	Kootenay River in Montana and British Columbia; Columbia River in Columbia Valley
Builder:	Louis Pacquet
Launched:	1897, at Jennings, Montana
Out of service:	1899-1901
Fate:	Out of service at Golden, BC in 1903 due to customs seizure; gradually dismantled thereafter
General characteristics
Type:	inland passenger/freighter
Tonnage:	380 gross tons; 265 registered tons
Length:	130 ft (40 m)
Beam:	26 ft (8 m)
Depth:	4.0 ft (1 m) depth of hold
Installed power:	twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, 14" bore by 48" stroke
Propulsion:	sternwheel

North Star was a sternwheel steamer that operated in western Montana and southeastern British Columbia on the Kootenay and Columbia rivers from 1897 to 1903. The vessel should not be confused with other steamers of the same name, some of which were similarly designed and operated in British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington.

North Star was built by Louis Pacquet, a shipbuilder from Portland, Oregon, for Capt. Frank P. Armstrong (1859-1923). Armstrong ran sternwheelers on the Kootenay and Columbia rivers under the name of the Upper Columbia Navigation and Tramway Company ("UCN&T"). Armstrong's domination of the Kootenay River steamboat business was threatened by the construction of another new steamer, the J.D. Farrell by the Kootenay River Navigation Company, a firm with financial backing from Spokane, Washington business interests. North Star was technically owned by American subsidiaries of the UCN&T, first the Upper Kootenay Navigation Company and then the International Transportation Company.

In June 1897 North Star started making runs from Jennings, Montana up the Kootenay river to Fort Steele, BC, where significant mining activity was occurring. The route ran through the dangerous stretch of Jennings Canyon where most of the sternwheelers on the upper Kootenay eventually were wrecked or seriously damaged. In April 1898 North Star was likewise wrecked in the Canyon. Armstrong was able to raise the vessel and return her to service. (Most of the Jennings Canyon has now been submerged by the waters behind Libby Dam.

During 1898, Captain Armstrong and Captain M. L. McCormack, manager of the Kootenay River Navigation Company, combined their efforts on the upper Kootenay, with the Armstrong boats North Star and Gwendoline receiving 60% of the freight receipts, with the balance to McCormack's single boat J.D. Farrell. In October 1898 railroads were completed in the Kootenay region, and traffic quickly shifted over to the railways, leaving the steamboats without business. North Star was laid up at Jennings, Montana with other upper Kootenay river sternwheelers until 1901, when the A. Guthrie Co. put them back in service to transport supplies for construction of the extension of the Great Northern Railway to Fernie, BC. In the fall of 1901, the railway construction was complete, and North Star and the other steamboats were laid up again.