First voyage down the river and the lakes Capt. Frank Odlin took
Lytton out of Revelstoke for her first commercial trip in early July 1890.
Lytton was not a large or luxurious vessel even compared to other steamboats of the time. However, for Revelstoke,
Lytton, the first significant steam vessel built in the town, was big news. Historian Downs, relying on accounts of the day described
Lytton's departure on her first voyage, leaving Revelstoke: The downriver voyage began on July 2, 1890, at the dock near where the new large bridge of the
Canadian Pacific Railway crossed the Columbia River.
Lytton then steamed over to the Revelstoke
smelter dock, where 65 tons of steel rails, fishplates and other track building supplies were loaded on board. The destination for these rail supplies was far down the lakes at
Sproats Landing, BC or modern day Castlegar, where the
Kootenay River joins the
Columbia. The CPR was building a portage railway from Nelson to Trail to allow it to access the mines in those towns and trans-ship ore and supplies from that train to the lake steamers enabling the freight to be moved one hundred miles north over the lake to the CPR port and dock at Arrowhead where a branch line stopped. The Kootenay River connected to the Nelson Arm of Kootenay Lake. The Kootenay river could not be navigated from the Columbia through to the Nelson Arm, as it was blocked by
Bonnington Falls. In place of steamboat navigation, in the early 1890s a railroad, the
Columbia and Kootenay was being built along the Kootenay River from Sproats Landing on the Columbia eastward to
Nelson on Kootenay Lake. Once the rail supplies were loaded, the trip down the Columbia and the lakes began on July 3, 1890, at 11:30 a.m., as crowds cheered on the dock and the nearby steamer
Kootenai. Three of the principals of the Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation had supplied most of the money for the construction of the
Lytton and two of them,
J. A. Mara and
Frank Barnard were on board for the steamer's first trip. Revelstoke was up the Columbia River from the head of the upper Arrow Lake. On her first trip,
Lytton took three hours to cover this distance, reaching the upper lake at 2:30 in the afternoon of July 3. This was still considered good time, as the steamer had encountered mechanical problems on the way down, forcing the vessel to stop. This was not surprising for a first run, and her actual steaming speed while underway had been an hour, which was helped by the swift flowing current in the river, ranging between 3 and 7 miles per hour. , on lower Arrow Lake Upper Arrow Lake opened up wide and deep after the Columbia River, and
Lytton traversed the entire lake by 6:30 p.m. on the evening of July 3. After this point came the Narrows, a stretch of shallow water which lay between the upper and lower Arrow Lakes. After a stop for fuel (called "wooding up"),
Lytton passed through the Narrows, reaching the head of the lower lake at 8:10 p.m. The vessel continued steaming down the lake into the night, reaching Sproat's Landing five and one-half hours later.
Lytton's actual steaming time subtracting delays was 12.33 miles per hour, and was considered good speed. On the return trip up the river and the lakes,
Lytton covered the entire back to Revelstoke in 13.75 hours, for an average speed of 11 miles per hour up river, also considered good.
Connection between transcontinental rail lines On August 15, 1890, a railroad, the
Spokane Falls and Northern been built up to Northport, then called Little Dalles (not to be confused with the other Little Dalles north of Revelstoke.) This railroad connected with the
Northern Pacific and there would shortly be a link to the
Great Northern at
Spokane. There were however no rail links in the Kootenay region between these transcontinental lines and the
Canadian Pacific Railway, and steamers on the Arrow Lakes, including the
Lytton were for a time the only connections between the railhead at Northport and the C.P.R. north at Revelstoke. From 1890 to 1897,
Lytton was operated on the Arrow Lakes route between Revelstroke and
Northport, Washington, although the northern terminus changed to
Wigwam, BC as the C.P.R. built an extension south down the eastern bank of the Columbia north of upper Arrow Lake.
Mining boom transport This became especially important when in the same month that mountains that
Lytton was taken on her first voyage, the fabulous Le Roi mining claim was staked at Red Mountain near
Trail, B.C. Over 6 million tons of lead/zinc/tin and gold ore were taken out of the claim, worth more than $125 million. One stakeholder bought his stake for $12.50 and sold it for $30,000. The resulting ore boom created a demand for steamboat and rail transportation to the mines near Trail and other parts of the Kootenay mountains.
Lytton became part of the ore boom, hauling ore barges to the
smelter at Trail.
Runs up to Dalles des Morts (Death Rapids) on the Columbia on upper Arrow Lake From 1897 to 1901, when the water was high enough
Lytton was worked on the Columbia above Revelstoke to La Porte, which was at a place called
Dalles des Morts, or in English, Death Rapids. Lytton was the first steamboat to work the Columbia River above Revelstoke after the
Forty-Nine in the 1860s and 1870s. One difficult stretch of water, called the Little Dalles, took
Lytton six hours to work through upriver. Coming down, the run was timed with a stopwatch, and took only 6 minutes and 51 seconds.
Ferry operations on lower Arrow Lake From 1898 to 1902 functioned as a ferry and towboat on the south end of lower Arrow Lake between
Robson, BC and
Robson West. This involved pushing barges across the lake loaded with rail cars and engines run out onto tracks mounted on the barges, and supported the work being done to extend the
Columbia and Kootenay Railway westward from
Castlegar, BC to Grand Forks and Midway.
Lytton continued in ferry service until replaced by a bridge in March 1902. ==Dismantled==