| Summary: | 68 HISTORY OF GRAND FORKS COUNTY states that a large number of men worked on the Selkirk, off- and on, including some of the flatboat crews when these men were not otherwise employed, and thinks that fifteen to twenty-five hands were engaged at odd times in its construction. Work on the boat began in the fall and progressed through the winter following, so that by springtime it was ready for launching. The beginning of the construction of the Selkirk was over a year before either the Northern Pacific or St. Paul & Pacific railroads had reached the valley, consequently her boilers, machinery and furnishings had to be teamed from the end of the last named line, then at VVillmar, Minn., 132 miles southeast of Breckenridge. In building steamboats along Red river, a favorable place was selected for the boat yard and the bank of the stream was graded down if necessary. The hull rested level, raised up a little upon blocking. When completed, timbers slanting down to the water were placed beneath the boat and secured in position. Then the. blocking was gradually removed by the aid of jack-screws, so as to lower the boat upon the timbers, and the process of launching was merely the sliding of the steamer bodily into the river sidewise. ■' The Selkirk was launched on or about April 12, 1871, and very soon afterward was steaming down tlie river on her. first trip. Capt. Griggs' inclinations naturally ran toward river navigation, so he was master of the Selkirk. The steamer reached the-Grand' Forks settlement about the 18th, and here several persons landed who thereafter became identified with its earlier affairs. Continuing her trip, the Selkirk put into the mouth of tlie Pembina river amidst a hard wind storm on the 20th, reporting at the custom house as having arrived at Pembina that day. About two days later the steamer reached Winnipeg. Quite different was this first trip of the Selkirk from steamboating on tlie Ohio or tlie upper Mississippi where every few miles landings have to be made at either small villages or thriving towns and cities; here, from Fort Abercrombie to Pembina, along a distance of over 350 miles as the river runs, tlie narrow forest belt following the sinuous windings of the stream was then mainly a solitude, broken only by a few embryo settlements, and, at long intervals, by the log buildings of the Hudson Bay company trading posts. ' To the passengers, the Selkirk must have seemed as a herald of civilization. The International, as has been stated, was owned and operated by the Hudson Bay company, but the Selkirk was built for general traffic, which, it was foreseen, increasing immigration into, the country would develop in considerable volume. This steamer: became one of the most noted boats on the river, and it played an important part in the- settlement and- development of the country. Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
|
|---|