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Bottomland on the
Arrow Lakes from Nakusp to Castlegar
provided land companies with an opportunity
to cash in on the region’s resource as a
productive fruit growing area. European
residents keen on becoming independent
farmers jumped at the chance to start
afresh. Dozens of small points along the
lake became settlements; some even large
enough to see stores built along with
churches and community halls. A great
advantage the Arrow Lakes corridor had over
the Okanagan farmers at this time was the
ability to grow fruit trees without
installing irrigation systems. The success
of these farms was hindered only by the lack
of transportation systems to get the fruit
to market due to reliance upon the CPR
sternwheelers. To alleviate the crisis,
meetings were held.
With the opening of the Kettle Valley
Railway and the daily boat service cut to a
tri-weekly service on October 31, 1915, the
small towns below Nakusp that were built up
in the orchard boom of 1907-08 became
vulnerable to getting their crops shipped
out with the new schedule. On March 29th and
April 1st of 1916, John Gore, superintendent
of the BC Lake & River Service met with
fruit growers from the towns between Needles
and Nakusp to discuss a new schedule for
getting their soft fruits to market.
At a meeting in the old Burton school, the
following points were made:
1) Captain Gore introduced that the company
was willing to run an additional boat on
alternate days, but did not in any way mean
the re-establishment of the daily service.
When the berry season ended, the boat would
be taken off.
2) FW Jordan advised those present to go
ahead and help make this extra boat a paying
proposition by finding a market for fruit
and shipping it; using the service to its
fullest capacity. The more they patronize
it, the better it would be for all
concerned.
3) The boat would start on about the 20th of
June and continue till the end of the berry
season. It would carry passengers and be
fully staffed like the through regular boat.
Only the schedule wouldn’t be the same. The
Burton Farmers Institute will be the ones to
let the CPR know when to commence this
service.
4) The last discussed topic was the routing.
Most of the small fruits from Needles south
went to points in southern Alberta, McLeod,
Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, etc. From Burton
north fruits were shipped to Calgary,
Edmonton and northern points. The fruit was
picked in the morning and shipped by the
northbound steamer and reached Calgary in
the afternoon. Mr. Smily of Burton stated
unless connection was not made at Arrowhead,
and suggested that if the boat had to lie
over, fruit shipped that day got into the
Calgary market for Sunday.
Before the Minto made its first fruit run of
the season, the CPR had to renew the service
of two steamers on the Arrow Lakes to take
care of the delayed passengers from the
washed out districts on the main line. To
help, the Bonnington and Minto were put in
readiness for a special crew from Slocan
Lake in charge of Capt. Kirby and left for
Arrowhead on June 22nd. The berry run
started on Monday, July 3rd, 1916. The first
shipments of fruit made weren’t as large as
anticipated due to the late cold weather,
but the shipment of strawberries on July 7th
was double any previous day. In 1917, the
second season of the berry boat, the service
started a week later with Walter Wright in
the wheelhouse of the SS Minto. The season
ended July 21st and wasn’t continued in the
following years. The onslaught of WWI along
with limited production of crops probably
led to the discontinuance of the service.
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