SS Minto

The Brown Bag History talk yesterday was on the S.S. Minto, a paddlewheel steamer that was part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Inland fleet. The S.S. Minto operated on the Arrow Lakes between Arrowhead and West Robson from 1898 to 1954 and there are still plenty of people around who fondly remember travelling on her.

Otto Estabrooks, captain of the S.S. Minto in 1947 told some of his adventures to E.L. Affleck, author of "Sternwheelers, Sandbars, and Switchbacks" As Estabrooks remembered, “My own major brush with an eddy occurred many years later on the MINTO, in the narrows between the two lakes. With the stern caught in an eddy and the bow in a fast running current, both pressing hard in opposite directions the boat turned with breathless speed to crash against the sharp rocks of a granite bluff opposite. Here destiny had provided a big log caught on the rocks against which the boat made a spectatular crash landing without doing any damage to the hull. Had the log not been there, I cannot say what would have happened, but one thing is certain, the boiler was too close to the contact point for comfort. That one never took liberties with steam boilers was a maxim.” Estabrooks had many other stories of his time as a steamboat captain in the interior of British Columbia.

The Canadian Pacific Railway finally made the decision to retire the S.S. Minto in 1954, after the boat had logged over 2,500,000 miles in its 56 years of operation. The last run of the Minto took place on April 23, 1954, and all of the staterooms were fully booked. One of the passengers was Mrs. Olive Maitland of Winnipeg, who had ridden on the maiden voyage of the Minto back in 1898. Residents all along the Upper and Lower Arrow Lakes came out to bid farewell to the Minto.

The Minto was sold to the city of Nakusp for $1, but they could not maintain it, and it was finally acquired by John Nelson of Galena Bay. He brought the Minto up to his property, but never had the money needed to get the sternwheeler navigational again. After John Nelson's death, the boat was towed into the middle of the lake and burned in August of 1968.