Fraser’s Landing

Peter Bartl (yellow shirt, third from right) showing enthusiasts the location of the long-gone Fraser's Landing, on a portion of the Lake still known as Fraser Narrows.

Dynamite ended the career of Fraser’s Landing in 1947.

The landing (or where it used to be) was the first place on an historical tour of Balfour given yesterday by Peter Bartl. He guided a dozen history buffs from the landing location to the Old Balfour School, to the site of former CPR Hotel and Sanatorium, to the Anglican Church, and finally to the Balfour Beach Inn. At each point he recounted the history with stories and pictures. Owing to my connection with Fraser’s Landing, Peter asked me to discuss its history and show pictures. Some of that discussion is below. With the exception of the map (which came from Touchstones Nelson), the pictures I showed (and display here) were from my family albums and were taken by my grandfather or father.

There was a time on this Lake when a landing meant just that: a place were people and goods landed from a ship. (This was before landing entered the lexicon of real estate developers). When transportation around the area was largely by water, the landings played the role of one’s driveway.

The earliest reference to Fraser’s Landing is from my grandfather’s photo album. The caption reads, “S.S. Fraser’s Ranch, Fraser’s Landing, Balfour, B.C., Kootenay Lake, May 1909”. Sydney Smyth Fraser (my grandfather’s brother) settled there in 1906 and soon built the ranch house, below. This rather rude structure was close to the Lake, and wasn’t replaced by a better house farther from the water until 1917. So, it was in this first house that Sydney, his wife Isabella, and their seven daughters made their start (it must have been crowded). The picture shows Isabella and the first two daughters, Isabel and Evlyn.

This map, from the period of the Great War, labels Fraser’s Landing among the over two dozen landings along the West Arm of Kootenay Lake. We can probably trust the order of the landings, but certainly not their precise locations. Consider: the Willow Point Landing (also known as West’s Landing) has been squeezed all the way down the Arm until it sits opposite Nelson. The solid black line is the railway; the dash–dotted line, the sternwheeler routes (source, Touchstones Nelson).

The first family picture I have of the landing, itself, was taken during a visit by my father in 1925. It clearly was not only used by the sternwheelers, but also by water–loving locals. All but one person in this picture is female, undoubtedly a consequence of the family having seven daughters.

On this same visit, my father recorded the S.S. Nasookin arriving at Fraser’s Landing. Taken in 1925, this picture shows the ship prior to the completion of the railway line from Kootenay Landing (south end of the Main Lake) to Procter (which is misspelled on the map, above). At this time, the Nasookin was used extensively on the whole Lake, so it needed sleeping quarters for the crew. These were located on the deck just below the wheelhouse.

When the railway line opened from Kootenay Landing to Procter in 1931, the Nasookin was chartered to the BC Government for use as a ferry between Fraser’s Landing and Gray Creek. This made Fraser’s Landing perhaps the most important landing on the West Arm. Fraser’s Landing was chosen over Balfour as the ferry terminus for a number of reasons, the principle one being that it presented fewer problems with wind—the Nasookin was a fairly tall ship with a shallow draft and reacted badly to strong cross winds. In 1933, the Government purchased the ship and proceeded to modified it. As sleeping quarters for the crew were no longer needed, the upper deck was removed and the wheelhouse and stack lowered. This also helped when it was windy. Automobiles could be carried inside on the bottom deck, but large vehicles did not fit. So, the covering over the bow (the forepeak) was removed to accommodate a bus or truck. Here is my father’s picture of the S.S. Nasookin at Fraser’s Landing in 1935. Compare the ship with the 1925 image.

The above picture was actually taken from the S.S. Moyie, but here is a picture my father took from the Nasookin as the bus was being loaded onto the bow. All the passengers would leave the bus while it drove up the planks.

The S.S. Nasookin served as the ferry across the Main Lake until 1947 at which time the MV Anscomb was launched by the BC Ministry of Transport. The terminals were changed to Balfour and and Kootenay Bay. The Anscomb had a greater capacity and didn’t have the same susceptibility to wind. No longer needed, Fraser’s Landing was dynamited and slipped into obscurity. (It was located at the bottom of Heuston Road, which remains a public access to the water).

Curiously, the name survives in two ways. Navigational charts of the Lake call that portion of the waterway, the Fraser Narrows (it is the narrowest of all the narrows on the West Arm). And if you type “Fraser, BC” into Google Maps (or Google Earth), it locates it at the Balfour-Harrop Fire Rescue Hall. Well, that is fairly close, considering that Google used to place Atbara on the wrong side of the Lake.

The wheelhouse and upper deck of the Nasookin now sit at Nasookin Road (about Three Mile) and serve as a private residence.