The Paddlewheeler SS Moyie: The Sweetheart of Kootenay Lake

This richly illustrated volume recounts the journey of the paddlewheeler steamer Moyie, which forged vital social and economic links in the Kootenay Lake region until 1957 as the last working vessel of its kind in Canada.

A national treasure known as “the Sweetheart of Kootenay Lake,” the former Canadian Pacific steamer SS Moyie is the oldest intact passenger sternwheeler in the world. From the mid-1800s onward, hundreds of sternwheelers plied the waterways of western North America. Needing little more than a willing crew and a foot of water beneath the hull, these intrepid vessels were often the only reliable means of transportation into remote areas in the years before highway and air travel.

The Moyie served Kootenay Lake communities for almost sixty years, establishing links between residents and their livelihoods, education, and medical care. Turner draws on decades of research to tell the Moyie’s captivating story, from its 1898 launch to its 1957 retirement as the last of its kind still operating in the country—and the ongoing efforts of the small community of Kaslo to preserve and restore the vessel as a many times award-winning National Historic Site of Canada.

The Paddlewheeler SS Moyie is not only an account of a remarkable historic vessel, but also a striking depiction of a pivotal time in Western Canadian history, and a compelling story of a community’s multi-generational and heartfelt commitment to this exceptional heritage showpiece.