SS Kootenay

SS Kootenay

Bonnington, Rossland, and Kootenay (sternwheelers) in ice at Nakusp ca 1911
History
Canada
Name:	Kootenay
Namesake:	Kootenay, British Columbia
Owner:	Canadian Pacific Railway
Route:	Arrowhead to Trail
Builder:	Thomas Bulger
Launched:	April 1897
Maiden voyage:	April 1897
In service:	1897-1919
Out of service:	1919
Fate:	Abandoned at Crescent Bay, British Columbia
General characteristics
Class and type:	Sternwheeler
Tonnage:	1117 gross, 732.5 net
Length:	184 feet (56 m)
Beam:	33 feet (10 m)
Depth:	6 feet (1.8 m)
Installed power:	21.6 horsepower

SS Kootenay was a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) wooden-hulled sternwheeler that serviced the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, Canada from 1897 to 1919. She was a large freight and passenger steamship and the first in a series of CPR riverboats built for the Arrow Lakes.

In the 1890s, CPR purchased the Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Company (C&KSN), which had hitherto provided steam transportation services on the Arrow Lakes. Soon after the takeover, CPR commissioned a series of three new vessels to improve services on the lakes and expand traffic in the Slocan Valley during the prosperous years of the late 1800s. Kootenay was the first to be built and was a large, attractively designed riverboat almost identical to the earlier Nakusp, but slightly larger.

Kootenay was also considered a sister ship to Aberdeen, which ran on Okanagan Lake.Kootenay was built at Nakusp yard at Rosebery, near Slocan Lake, by Thomas Bulger and his workers. Kootenay was the largest steamer on the upper Columbia River until the launch of Bonnington in 1911 and had two passenger decks with large lounges and a dining saloon, a freight deck for fuel and cargo, and a wheelhouse. Her engines came from the sternwheeler William Irving, which had been wrecked on the lower Fraser River in 1894.

William Irving was considerably smaller than Kootenay, so the latter was underpowered and slow. However, she operated successfully for many years. She had an elaborate system of hog chains and cables to strengthen her wooden hull. Kootenay was launched in April, 1897 at Nakusp.

With the addition of Kootenay, a large, modern vessel, to the Arrow Lakes service fleet, CPR was able to provide daily service to the surrounding communities. With the Nakusp, Kootenay traveled daily between Arrowhead and Trail. Other vessels were available for relief, freight, and to service the route from Trail south to Northport.