Hazelton was a sternwheeler that worked on the Skeena River in British Columbia, Canada from 1901 until 1912. Her first owner was Robert Cunningham who ran a freighting business that served the communities along the Skeena River.
Hazelton was named after one of the communities she served, Hazelton, which was one of the oldest towns in Northern British Columbia, having been founded in 1866 and was the main staging area for the Omineca Gold Rush.
Robert Cunningham had Hazelton built to run against the sternwheelers of the Hudson's Bay Company, Caledonia and Strathcona. To design and pilot her, Cunningham hired veteran white-water skipper John Bonser, who went down to Victoria in the winter of 1900 to help in the details of her design and construction.[1]
The rivalry begins
Hazelton was launched in 1901 and soon proved that she was superior to the rival HBC vessels. In her first season, she made 13 trips to Hazelton, setting a new speed record by completing the 180-mile journey upstream from Port Essington to Hazelton in just forty hours. The trip back downstream was, of course, swifter yet and Hazelton routinely traveled it in ten hours.[1]