Andrew Onderdonk held the contract to build the 29+1⁄2 miles (47.5km) section of railway from Boston Bar to Lytton. It was a contract worth $2,573,640. He built the Skuzzy with the intention of moving railway supplies by steamer to the camps north of Yale via the Fraser River instead of using pack trains over the Cariboo Road, which is a low but difficult pass between Yale and Spuzzum. A ship would save him $10 per ton in road tolls alone.
The Skuzzy was built to transport goods to the current places of construction of the CPR or, the Canadian Pacific Railway. Because transporting materials along the Cariboo Road took too long to get to the site, Andrew Onderdonk built the Skuzzy and used the Fraser River to his advantage. The "Skuzzy" would have to be piloted by an expert sailor as they would be navigating through the whirlpools and rapids of Hell's Gate.
Alexandra Bridge
After it was built, Ausbury Insley piloted the ship up river on May 17, 1882. Captain Insley was able to guide the Skuzzy upstream through the whirlpools and rapids and under the Alexandra Bridge[dubious–discuss] which had been built by the Royal Engineers in 1863, but when Insley got the Skuzzy to the entrance of the Hell's Gate Canyon he could take it no further. The Fraser was at it highest point in forty years, and passage was impossible.
Onderdonk brought in a captain and engineer from Oregon. Under their command, on September 7, the Skuzzy again attempted the rapids at Hell's Gate and once again failed. Onderdonk then had ringbolts drilled into the canyon's walls, and he stationed 125 Chinese railway employees above. Observers were betting on the success of the journey, and odds were 100:1 against.[1]
Hell's Gate Canyon
Finally, with the aid of its steam capstan winching in the cable and 125 men pulling at its tow rope, the Skuzzy made it through Hell's Gate. It took 16 days to make the 16 mile trip to Boston Bar. The Skuzzy became the first sternwheeler to arrive in Lytton.[2]
Andrew Onderdonk was an American construction contractor who worked on several major projects in the West, including the San Francisco seawall in California and the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. He was born on August 30, 1848 in New York City to an established ethnic Dutch family. He received his education at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Yale is an unincorporated town in the Canadian province of British Columbia, which grew in importance during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.
Spuzzum is an unincorporated community in the lower Fraser Canyon area of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The place is on the west shore of the Fraser River and north shore of Spuzzum Creek. The locality, on BC Highway 1, is by road about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Hope and 69 kilometres (43 mi) south of Lytton.
The Cariboo Road was a project initiated in 1860 by the Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas. It involved a feat of engineering stretching from Fort Yale to Barkerville, B.C. through extremely hazardous canyon territory in the Interior of British Columbia.
Yale-Lillooet was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada.
The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Canyon" is often used to include the Thompson Canyon from Lytton to Ashcroft, since they form the same highway route which most people are familiar with, although it is actually reckoned to begin above Williams Lake at Soda Creek Canyon near the town of the same name.
The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later became the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly River, and on Keithley Creek and Antler Creek in 1860. The actual rush did not begin until 1861, when these discoveries were widely publicized. By 1865, following the strikes along Williams Creek, the rush was in full swing.
Boston Bar is an unincorporated community in the Fraser Canyon of the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The Grand Canyon of the Fraser is a short gorge on the upper Fraser River in the Robson Valley region of east central British Columbia. The location, about 6 kilometres (4 mi) south-southwest of Hutton, became part of the Sugarbowl-Grizzly Den Provincial Park and Protected Area in 2000. The canyon head was about 171 kilometres (106 mi) by river from Fort George, and is about 100 kilometres (62 mi) due east of downtown Prince George.
Alexandra Bridge Park lies within the lower Fraser Canyon of British Columbia, Canada. This provincial park is adjacent to the historic suspension bridge from 1926, which spans the Fraser River and was built using the eastern abutment of the bridge from 1863. The locality, on BC Highway 1, is by road about 44 kilometres (27 mi) north of Hope and 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of Lytton.
Soda Creek is a rural subdivision 38 km north of Williams Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Located on the east bank of the Fraser River, Soda Creek was originally the home of the Xat'sull First Nation. Soda Creek Indian Reserve No. 1 is located on the left (E) bank of the Fraser River, one mile south of the Soda Creek BCR (CN) station, 431.10 ha. 52°19′00″N122°16′00″W
Twelve paddlewheel steamboats plied the upper Fraser River in British Columbia from 1863 until 1921. They were used for a variety of purposes: working on railroad construction, delivering mail, promoting real estate in infant townsites and bringing settlers in to a new frontier. They served the towns of Quesnel, Barkerville and Fort George. Some only worked the Fraser from Soda Creek to Quesnel, while others went all the way to Tête Jaune Cache or took the Nechako River and served Fort Fraser and beyond.
The Enterprise was a passenger and freight sternwheeler that was built for service on the Soda Creek to Quesnel route on the upper Fraser River in British Columbia. It was built at Four Mile Creek near Alexandria by pioneer shipbuilder James Trahey of Victoria for Gustavus Blin-Wright and Captain Thomas Wright and was put into service in the spring of 1863. Her captain was JW Doane. The Enterprise was the first of twelve sternwheelers that would work on this section of the Fraser from 1863 to 1921. Though she wasn’t large, she was a wonderful example of the early craft of shipbuilding. All of the lumber she was built from was cut by hand and her boiler and engines had been brought to the building site at Four Mile packed by mule via the wagon road from Port Douglas, 300 miles away.
Victoria was a passenger and freight sternwheeler that was built for service on the Soda Creek to Quesnel route on the upper Fraser River in British Columbia. She was built at Quesnel by pioneer shipbuilder James Trahey of Victoria for Gustavus Blin-Wright and Captain Thomas Wright and was put into service in the spring of 1869 to augment the service of Enterprise also built by Trahey for the Wrights. Although the Victoria's hull was new, her engines and boiler had originally been in the Prince of Wales from Lillooet Lake.
The BC Express was a stern wheel paddle steamer (sternwheeler) that operated on the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada, from 1912 to 1919. The BC Express was built for the BC Express Company by Alexander Watson, Jr to work on the upper Fraser River between Tête Jaune Cache and Fort George during the busy years of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway construction. The BC Express Company hired Captain Joseph Bucey, an experienced Skeena River pilot, to be her master.
Stephen Tingley was a stagecoach driver and one of the original owners of the pioneer transportation company BC Express that served the Cariboo region in British Columbia, Canada for 60 years, from 1860, when it was first founded as Barnard's Express, until 1920, when it ceased its sternwheeler service.
John Henry Bonser was a steamship captain from Oregon, United States and British Columbia, Canada. He piloted dozens of sternwheelers over his 40-year-long career and pioneered many rivers in the Pacific Northwest.
William Irving was a steamship captain and entrepreneur in Oregon, US and British Columbia, Canada. The Irvington neighborhood in Portland, Oregon is named in his honor and in New Westminster, British Columbia his home, "Irving House", is now a heritage site. He was one of the earliest pioneers of steamer travel in the Pacific Northwest and is remembered as one of the most successful and popular captains of the era.
John Irving was a steamship captain in British Columbia, Canada. He began on the Fraser River at the age of 18 and would become one of the most famous and prosperous riverboat captains of the era. His father, William Irving, was known as the "King of the River" and the neighborhood of Irvington in Portland, Oregon is named in honor of their family.
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