A motorboat was plying the Moose Jaw River before the first motorcar appeared on city streets.
The boat was the “Edith,” a 24-passenger “electro-vapor” launch which heralded the arrival of motorized transportation in the opening years of the last century.
Pleasure boating on the Moose Jaw River dates from the arrival of the first settlers. On May 23, 1884, the Moose Jaw News announced that rowing was in full swing on the river and that there was “a probability of a boathouse being started by one of our enterprising citizens.”
At the same time, local merchants Messrs. Winnett and Smith advertised that “anyone wanting a pleasure boat for excursions up the Moose Jaw River during the season, can get one built to suit his taste at reasonable rates.”
1902 was the really big year for boating. On May 22, some farmers of the Eastview district, a few miles northeast of Moose Jaw, gathered at an Allcock farm “for the purpose of constructing a boat.” With the help of smudges to ward off mosquitoes, the boat builders had a craft finished by nightfall when it was informally launched on a nearby pond and named “Alexandra” in honour of the reigning queen-consort.
Two days later, on May 24, the Alexandra was carted several miles across country to the Moose Jaw River where, in the presence of a few dozen people, the boat was formally relaunched. After several trips on the river, the Alexandra sprang a leak and sank to the bottom. Its two passengers reached shore safely.
A month later, on Dominion (now Canada) Day, 1902, the “electro-vapor” Edith was launched at Plaxton’s boathouse near the present Second Avenue East underpass, and for the next 12 years it was the undisputed queen of the Moose Jaw River.
The Edith was the property of two local residents, Messrs. Plaxton and Gamble, and was built by the Racine Boat Manufacturing Company of Racine, Wis., and shipped to Moose Jaw in sections where it was assembled by the owners. Capable of carrying 24 passengers, the Edith was fitted with a bow-to-stern canopy with open sides, cushioned seats, and a three-and-one-half horsepower gasoline engine which enabled it to travel about seven miles per hour.
“The launch has been put through all sorts of manoeuvres and a thorough test by the owners so they could confidently guarantee to the public perfect safety and a good reliable service,” assured the Moose Jaw Times.
The Edith was an instant success and remained so for as long as Moose Jaw residents, without automobiles and roads to take them farther afield, spent their leisure time on the river. During its first summer, the Edith ferried scores of picnic parties between home dock and River Park, and on occasion made longer trips “up to the rapids” probably where the river and Main Street South meet.
On the evening of July 20, 1903, the Edith led a flotilla of river craft upstream to the official opening of Valley Park, Moose Jaw‘s new picnic and sports area now called Wellesley Park. The Edith and its convoy deposited the celebrants at Valley Park’s boat landing where a large tent had been set up and a dance orchestra provided for the evening’s festivities.
The Edith ventured into other waters in 1904, the year of the big flood in the Qu’Appelle Valley which inundated the town of Lumsden and washed out miles of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Prince Albert line. The Edith was loaded onto a railway flatcar and taken to Lumsden where its owner George Plaxton was contracted to the CPR to ferry freight and passengers across the flooded valley.
The Edith handled as many as 450 passengers each day and when not toting people, it towed scows of coal and other freight. It helped to rescue four men from a watery grave when an overloaded coal scow on which they were riding turned turtle in the current and went down in 25 feet of water.
When the flood waters abated, the Edith came home to Moose Jaw. “This is welcome news to the many who have so missed the delightful trips up the river to the park,” said the Moose Jaw Times.
By 1912, the Edith was no longer the only motorboat on the Moose Jaw River. At least three others had joined her — the Sputter, Prairie Queen and Damifikare. In a handicap four-mile race — two miles upstream and back — in August 1912, the Edith came second, losing first place to another Plaxton-owned boat, Prairie Queen which, being a lighter craft was faster on the turn.
In 1913, with the arrival of George Wigmann’s boat, Lady Moose, Moose Jaw was now home to the “fastest motorboat in the west.”
