1	               August 1993
     2	
     3	  Promotion of Steamboat Travel on the North Saskatchewan River
     4	          
     5	                         ....edited by Marijan Salopek
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     8	
     9	The wreck of the steamer City of Winnipeg, formerly the Manitoba,
    10	as she was being brought across Lake Winnipeg, is a great loss,
    11	not only to the owners, but to the people of the whole
    12	Saskatchewan country, as it will be impossible to put another
    13	boat in her place in time to be of much service next season. 
    14	Each year the necessity for more and improved steamers on the
    15	river is more severely felt as the population increases and the
    16	country develops, and each year the difficulties of the roads
    17	between Winnipeg and here become greater.  During the season now
    18	nearly over, it was no uncommon thing for carts to be three
    19	months on the way, while the distance could be made by steamer
    20	with all ease in twenty days.  As the country opens up heavy
    21	goods, such as machinery, stoves and building hardware, are more
    22	needed.  But the difficulty of bringing such articles in carts is
    23	so great as to almost prevent their being brought, and when they
    24	do get here the cost of freighting is so great as to put the
    25	price almost out reach.  The Saskatchewan is considered by some
    26	not to be fit for navigation to any extent, but it must be very
    27	bad indeed if it is not better than slow going oxen on a muddy
    28	road 1,000 miles long...
    29	     ... A good line of boats on the river would do nearly as
    30	much to open up the country as the railroad itself, and would,
    31	for all time to come, offer strong competition to the railroad,
    32	especially on eastern bound freight.
    33	     An advantage that a line of boats on the Saskatchewan would
    34	have over one on the Red or Assiniboine rivers is that full loads
    35	(coal and lumber) could be had for every return trip; in fact
    36	that is what is principally needed for the development of these
    37	two industries.
    38	     When the Lake Winnipeg & Hudson's Bay Railway is completed,
    39	as it will be ultimately, it, in connection with the navigation
    40	of the Saskatchewan, will form the shortest and most natural
    41	outlet for the surplus produce of this country on its way to the
    42	English market, putting Edmonton on nearly as good a footing for
    43	the shipping of grain as St. Paul is now.
    44	
    45	Source:  , November 5, 1881.