1

The Saskatchewan River has always been an essential thread in the fabric of the North. It was important during the fur trade as a major route from the interior to Hudson Bay, and once the settlement at The Pas began to grow it was an essential transportation route before major roads and highways were built in the area.

The first steamboat to sail on the Saskatchewan River was the S.S. Northcote in 1874. Its first stop was The Pas on its way upriver to Carlton House. During the early 1900s, the boats most likely to be seen on the Saskatchewan River around The Pas belonged to the Ross Navigation Company, The Pas Lumber Company and Tom Lamb.

2

York Boats
20th Century, Circa 1920
Split Lake, Manitoba

Credits:
PP93.18.407

3

York boat in use
20th Century, Circa 1911
Saskatchewan River, Manitoba

Credits:
PP95.13.18

4

People Loading Boats
20th Century, Circa 1920
The Pas, Manitoba

Credits:
Roy Easton (?)
PP2001.6.16

5

S.S. King George V
20th Century, Circa 1916
The Pas, Manitoba

Credits:
PP88.14.2

6

Fishing at the Docks
20th Century, Circa 1950
The Pas, Manitoba

Credits:
PP93.18.462

7

The Pas Docks
20th Century, Circa 1925
The Pas, Manitoba

Credits:
PP93.18.461

8

The Pas Dock
20th Century, Circa 1925
The Pas, Manitoba

Credits:
PP93.18.460b

9

Ross Navigation Company was named for its larger than life owner, Captain Horatio Hamilton Ross. Although born into the gentry in Scotland, his adventurous spirit brought him to Western Canada and ultimately The Pas, where he founded a fleet of steamboats. His life of partying and steamboats came to an end under what were considered suspicious circumstances by many townspeople when he was found dead with his shotgun beside him in 1925.

Captain Ross operated boats first out of Medicine Hat, and then moved to The Pas around 1908 when he was appointed fisheries inspector there by the Dominion Government. He had the Sam Brisbin built to be used in his new duties as Fisheries Inspector for the Northland. In 1911 he had S.S. LePas built, and upon forming the Ross Navigation Company he added to his fleet the O'Hell (1910), Minasin (1913), Notin (1914), Nipawin (1917) and the Tobin (1921). With the opening of the Mandy Mine on Schist Lake around 1917, Ross Navigation Company hauled many a barge of copper ore from the mine site to the railhead at The Pas. The S.S. Nipawin was built to move the ore barges by water from Sturgeon Landing, across Cumberland Lake, out the Bigstone River, and down the Saskatchewan River to The Pas.