The Polk County Historical Society has released information on the history and importance of Fisher’s Landing as a steamboat port. The information was posted on their Facebook page and they gave KROX permission to post the information and pictures below.
The story and pictures below are from the Polk County Historical Society –
The short history and importance of Fisher’s Landing (Fisher, Polk County, Minnesota) as a steamboat port is an often overlooked or only briefly mentioned in histories of the Steamboats on the Red River.
Brief mentions of “The Landing” are frequent but the focus of most histories is on Georgetown – Fargo – Moorhead as steamboat ports. And indeed they were the only ports in the early history of steamboats.
The story is long, but suffice to say that from 1875 – 1879, Fisher’s Landing was the end of the railroad, and JJ Hill and Norman Kittson moved most of their steamboats there, carrying freight and passengers north to Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and mostly furs back to The Landing, to be sent by rail to St. Paul. The rails that built the first railroad in Manitoba were hauled through The Landing, and the first locomotive, The Countess of Dufferin, along with a coal tender and flat cars, were loaded on barges at Fisher’s and towed to Fort Garry by the steamboat Selkirk.
In an essay published in the Grand Forks Herald in 1922, written by Duane Squires interviewing James Elton, purser (the money handler on a ship) of the steamboat “Dakotah”, Mr. Elton stated that the steamboats Dakotah, International, Selkirk, Minnesota, Cheyenne, and the Manitoba were loaded at the Landing during those years.
Other steamboats operated out of Fargo – Moorhead during those years, but the round trip took four days longer on the average than from Fisher’s Landing. Low water in the southern stretch of the Red River, particularly where the Goose River (at present Caledonia) meets the Red, caused many a headache. And lastly, under the monopoly of steamboat transportation by Hill and Kittson, the freight and passenger rates were about the same whether from Fargo or Fisher.
These are the only known photos of Fisher’s Landing, on the riverbank below the present village. They are colorized to provide better contrast as the original black and white photos are murky.
You can follow the Polk County Historical Society on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/polkhistorical.
