The Wanda Sue on the South Thompson River in June 1982.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
July 22, 2023 - 6:00 AM
It’s been nearly 20 years since the Wanda Sue stopped cruising on the South Thompson River out of Kamloops.
The Slack family, who own the boat, are now hard at work scrubbing her up and getting her ready for another season, hopefully next summer. That would mark not only the 20th anniversary of her last cruise but, also, the 40th anniversary of the Wanda Sue’s maiden cruise.
“Mechanically, it’s extremely sound,” Randy Slack, grandson of the boat’s builder, George Slack, told iNFOnews.ca while he was out sanding down the deck.
George Slack
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
“We fire it up, probably, twice a month and circulate everything and make sure everything is working,” Slack said. “We make sure the oil gets changed, the wheel gets turned, everything gets lubricated so nothing sits and rots.
“We painted the wheel about four-and-a-half years ago but the decks and stuff haven’t been touched in probably 15 years. It’s to the point now, if we’re going to clean it up and paint it and get it all done up, we’re hoping to see it back on the river here.”
George Slack was a builder at heart, his grandson said.
He held a number of jobs, often two at once. In his younger life he worked for CN Rail, he had a portable sawmill operation with his two brothers-in-law in the Barrier area and ended up working for the Ministry of Highways.
He had a passion for building things, such an addition to his home and two boats before the Wanda Sue.
One was a 20-foot sternwheeler for the family.
“He had a lot of people approach him for rides so he built a 40-footer called the Slackwater,” Randy said. “He didn’t really do his research. He went ahead and built it but, when he went to certify it, it was made of wood and had a gasoline engine. The Ministry of Transportation said: “Mmm. It’s a fire hazard. We can’t certify it for passengers.’ So he sold it to some fellow as a houseboat.”
From there he went on to the Wanda Sue which, according to Andy Philpot, one of its former captains, had a hull that was 65 feet long. With the paddlewheel and front ramp it stretched close to 100 feet. It was 18 feet wide and was licenced to carry 100 passengers.
The deck under construction.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
It was named for Wanda, George's first wife and his first granddaughter, Sue, Philpot said.
Most of the materials were salvaged.
“He started gathering materials for the Wanda Sue around 1977,” Randy said. “Being with the Ministry of Highways he got the idea – the Ministry was getting rid of all their steel guard rails and going to mill posts and things like that. When they were getting rid of that stuff, he bought it up on bid or, whatever. He flattened it out with a steam roller for the decks.”
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
The guard rails were welded together using welding rods for the hull as well. Each rod could create a weld of about 12 inches before it needed to be replaced. With something like 4,500 feet of welding needing to be done, that required a lot of rods.
“I was working at Amco Industrial Supplies back in the day,” Philpot said. “George was coming in and buying one or two cases of welding rods at a time. I said, if you buy 200 pounds at a time, we can give you a really good price break. He said: ‘Ya, but if I have 200 pounds of welding rods sitting there and it gets damp, it’s me to blame.’ We actually arranged that he was getting the 200-pound rate even though he was buying it in small quantities. And that’s how I met him.”
Intrigued by the project, Philpot started hanging around and helping out, eventually taking the training needed to get his captain’s papers.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
Ralph Slack, for his part, was in high school at that time so only helped out a bit. He did become a welder by trade but only had the chance to do a little bit of welding on the Wanda Sue. He took the training to get his First Mate’s papers.
The steering wheel was made from old pallets and the mast from two street light standards welded together, Philpot said.
The spotlight came from the CS Lamb, which was the last of the old time sternwheelers to ply the Thompson River. It’s last run was in the 1930s and it’s now sunk near the Kamloops Yacht Club.
READ MORE: The long history of paddle wheelers between Kamloops and Enderby
The hull was launched in 1980 then George started building the superstructure on it.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
“It’s first run was in 1983 but we were still working the bugs out of it,” Ralph said. “The initial paddles were one inch plywood. There was just so much power in that wheel that it would snap the plywood so we ended up going to steel paddles.
“It was quite an eye opener because you would think one inch plywood is extremely strong but, no, it was snapping in half like it was nothing. Just such a lot of power.
Philpot said it had a 65 horsepower engine, which was far more than was needed.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
The Wanda Sue was certified to carry passengers in 1984.
For the next 20 years it plied he waters of the South Thompson, down to Savona on occasion and up to Salmon Arm on others. Most of the cruises took about 2.5 hours up to the LaFarge Bridge and back Ralph said.
It could not run up the North Thompson River because it was too shallow and the mechanism to lift the CN Rail Bridge span had been removed.
The southern CN Bridge still had its gear in place but it hadn’t been used since the CR Lamb stopped running in 1938.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
The Wanda Sue ran seven days a week, starting on Mother’s Day and continuing into September and had five different captains over the years. Since it ran seven days a week, more than one captain had to be on staff all season.
“For quite a few years, it was extremely popular,” Ralph said. “We were sold out most of the time. As time progressed it became kind of the norm. People just stopped showing up and topped supporting it.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
“That’s where we ran into trouble. Captains weren’t cheap and, when you’ve only got two people or three people showing up for a river cruise, that doesn’t even cover the cost of fuel. Not even close. Let alone captain’s wages, deck hand wages and that kind of stuff. They made a go of it, but the people of Kamloops just stopped showing up. They had been on it once or twice already and that was kind of it.”
A last ditch effort was made to run it out of Salmon Arm but it just proved too expensive to house captains and crew there, Ralph said.
So, the Wanda Sue retired to the dock at George’s home after he died in 2003.
READ MORE: Poor, old Fintry Queen still trying to make waves
It did break free a couple of times, the latest being in 2017 when tonnes of ice jammed up against the dock. That actually broke the dock and floated it all downstream to crash into a neighbouring dock.
All the oil and fluids had been drained out for the winter so it couldn't just be driven back upstream.
“A friend of my father’s got his D6 bulldozer down here with a winch,” Ralph said. “We hooked onto it and we anchored off to a bunch of trees to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere. The ice had already passed on by at this point. From there we moved it upstream and attached to the upriver pilings of our neighbour. She was nice enough to let us do that until we could get something more permanent back in place here.”
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
The family has taken the Wanda Sue out for a few runs over the years but it’s been four or five years since the last one.
Ralph is frequently getting questioned by people asking when he’s going to get the Wanda Sue cruising again.
The family has had some people looking into buying it. Before COVID a Yukon man considered taking it up to a lake above the White Pass and Yukon Railway line but that relied on cruise ship passengers and COVID put and end to that.
Another person inquired recently but couldn’t get the funding.
The Wanda Sue has not been listed for sale but, if an offer is made, the family will consider it, Ralph said.
“The main thing is, I’d love to see it stay here,” Randy said. “That was my grandfather’s dream to have it plying the waters on the Thompson here in the Kamloops area, and taking passengers up and down it. He was quite fascinated by it.”
Going through the CN bridge on the South Thompson.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
One problem with getting commercial cruises going again is where to operate from.
It used to run from the Kamloops Yacht club but that dock, which was built mostly for the Wanda Sue, is gone. Randy hopes the Yacht Club would be willing to put them back in. He’d also be happy for the city to buy and run the boat.
“I think the market is out there again,” he said. “Parents took their kids on it and those kids have got their own kids now. And, there’s over 400 couples who were married on this boat. Our hope is to keep it here and keep it running here. It’s kind of Kamloops history.”
The Wanda Sue is getting ready to cruise again. This was taken July 6, 2023.
Image Credit: Submitted/Andy Philpot
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