On the Mackenzie River

The history of paddle wheelers in the Northwest Territories

WORDS BY CHARLES ARNOLD

Do you know “Proud Mary,” Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song about a paddle wheeler that plied its trade on the Mississippi River? With apologies to CCR, here is a tribute to two paddle wheelers that once were familiar sights along the Mackenzie River:

Got hired on the Distributor in Fort Smith Heading all the way to the Beaufort Sea Workin’ as a deckhand on a paddle wheeler Thinkin’ about Tuktoyaktuk way ahead of me

Big wheel keep on turnin’ Distributor keep on burnin’ Rollin’, rollin’, on the Mackenzie River

The fur trade that dominated economic activity in the western Canadian Arctic in the first half of the twentieth century relied on an extensive water transportation system that brought trade goods north and shipped furs to southern markets. One arm of this system was the coastal route first pioneered by whaling ships, with sea-going vessels sailing between ports on the Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States, and depots and trading posts on the Arctic coast. Another arm was the interior route: overland to Waterways (near present-day Fort McMurray) and then along the Slave River, with a portage around Rapids of the Drowned south of Fort Smith, across the southern part of Great Slave Lake, and then ‘down north’ along the Mackenzie River to Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk. For more than 40 years, the northern leg of this route was serviced by two shallow draft riverboats propelled by stern-mounted paddle wheels, SS (for ‘Steam Ship’) Mackenzie River and SS Distributor.

SS Mackenzie River was the first paddle wheeler on the Mackenzie River. It was built at Fort Smith in 1908 and was operated by the Hudson’s Bay Company until 1947, although it was mothballed for most of the 1920s. SS Distributor was considered to be the ‘flagship’ of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Mackenzie River Transportation Department. Larger than the Mackenzie River, the Distributor was 50 meters long and could carry 90 or more passengers and a crew of 30. It first saw service on the Fraser River in British Columbia, and subsequently was purchased by Lamson & Hubbard Trading Company, dismantled, and shipped to Fort Smith where it was rebuilt and put into service on the Mackenzie River in 1920. It was acquired by the Alberta Arctic Transportation Co. in 1921, and by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1924.

Burned a lot of wood on Great Slave Lake Fightin’ against the wind on that inland sea Almost lost a barge near Mission Island When a crashing wave darn near tore it free

Big wheel keep on turnin’ Distributor keep on burnin’ Rollin’, rollin’, on the Mackenzie River

Twice, and sometimes three times in summer, the Mackenzie River and the Distributor would set out from Fort Smith on a 2,000-kilometer journey down the Mackenzie River as far as Aklavik in the Mackenzie River Delta, and on some trips going as far as Tuktoyaktuk, on the edge of the Beaufort Sea. The round trip took about five weeks. In addition to carrying freight for its trading operations, the Hudson’s Bay Company operated under a Common Carrier License so that they could carry general freight and passengers. The passengers stayed in white paneled staterooms that surrounded a central lounge, and meals were served in a room that one passenger described as resembling “the dining room of an old-fashioned inn.” Freight was carried in barges that were attached to each side of the paddle wheelers, and in addition, the paddle wheelers often pushed one and sometimes two large barges in front of them.

The paddle wheels were turned by steam boilers that burned a cord or more of wood each hour. Every eight hours the boats had to pull into shore to take on a supply of wood that had been cut and stockpiled by woodcutters during the winter months. Sixteen deckhands were kept busy loading wood during the frequent refueling stops and feeding it to the boilers when the boats were underway. This is how an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company described the sound of the Distributor: “The antiquated engine … wheezed its way northward to a medley of sounds; the sobbing and heaving of pumps, the measured stroke of the great crank and the steady slapping of the wooden paddles of the stern wheel … From the smokestack the spent steam was blown into the air in a regular pattern of two puffs, then one, followed by a pause while the engines gathered enough energy to continue the puffing.”

The first part of the trip north required steaming across the southern part of Great Slave Lake, a notoriously windy area where one passenger said the Distributor was “tossed about like a cork.”

Once on the Mackenzie River, the paddle wheelers had to navigate rapids upstream of Fort Simpson and below Norman Wells, and go through faster waters at the Ramparts near Fort Good Hope, where the river narrowed and flowed between limestone cliffs. In slower parts of the river, particularly in the Mackenzie River Delta, shallow areas and shifting sandbars could present hazards to the paddle wheelers, especially when they were encumbered by their barges.

For many years the police, church missions, government agents, oil and mining companies, prospectors, and competing fur traders depended on the Mackenzie River and the Distributor. The Hudson’s Bay Company also courted tourists, offering round-trip passage on the Distributor from Waterways to Aklavik for a cost in 1933 of $325.00, including meals and a berth. Northerners also booked passage on the paddle wheelers, ‘going out’ for holidays or special occasions.

By the time we got down to Aklavik The sun was shining on us all the night and day So I never got a single minute sleepin’ And before I knew it we were headed up Tuktoyaktuk way

Big wheel keep on turnin’ Distributor keep on burnin’ Rollin’, rollin’, on the Mackenzie River

Until the mid-1950s Aklavik was the centre of economic activity on the lower Mackenzie River, and often was the end of the line for the paddle wheelers. After the Hudson’s Bay Company established a trading post at Tuktoyaktuk in 1937, they sometimes took freight for that post, and for transfer to sea-going vessels that carried it to other parts of the Western Arctic.

If you go down north on the river Bet you can still find some people who heard The blowing of the whistles of the paddle wheelers As they came around a river bend curve Rollin’, rollin’, on the Mackenzie River

The end of the Second World War brought changes to the North. Airplanes carried passengers to their destinations more quickly than the slow-moving paddle wheelers, and a fleet of diesel-powered tugboats operated by the Northern Transportation Company carried freight more efficiently. In 1947 the Hudson’s Bay Company gave up its Common Carrier License, and the aging Mackenzie River and Distributor were taken out of service. The paddle wheeler era on the Mackenzie River had come to an end.