Jim
Gander working pavers
Leon Kruger, mister do it all
Fram 2006 Heritage Days History 2007 event Certificate of enrollment General History of Steamboats on the Red River
Jim
Gander working pavers
Leon Kruger, mister do it all
This picture is from
2006 Heritage days. Numerous visitors stopped by and reviewed
the available information. Information will be expanded for 2007. Sod was
been laid by Mr. Kruger and his team in the fall of 2006.
In 1976, Ralph Solem and his two sons were walking down by the river which was very low at the time, when they spotted the Fram which had broken loose from its moorings in Grand Forks in 1912 and drifted down river. Ralph was instrumental in bringing up the boiler etc in 1982.
Allegedly Max Campbell had planned to complete a restoration project to the tune of $15,000. Howard Rutherford, Bob Pape and Melvin Johnson allegedly are aware of the old plans to put a roof over it and move the Engine (s). Ralph relates that someone came to his farm and picked the boiler etc up from his farm, but didn’t inform him until it was moved. . He was told it was worth $5000. The Fram was built in 1888. Ralph picked up the pump from the center. He has a big heavy chain and a shovel. He relates that it is 200 miles to come to EGF. He is 71, retired living in Baxter, MN, and caring for 3 grand children ages 6,8, & 10 in 2006. Therefore his is not currently able to physically partake in a preservation project. Date entered 1-13-06
Darlene and Ralph Solem live at 13489 Aspen Drive, Baxter, MN, 56425. Phone 218-828-9229
Information from the Oslo Centennial
The Grand Forks Herald called the steamboat, Fram, "a little beauty" in 1900, when the East Grand Forks Transportation Company took the side-wheeler off the Red Lake River, converted it into a stem wheeler and put it to work ferrying passengers and freight up and down the Red.
Steamboat traffic had pretty much run its course by 1910, and it was a stripped-down Fram that broke loose from its moorings at Grand Forks in 1912 and drifted downriver. Frank N. Painter, a retired Red River boat captain, reported spotting the hull afloat as late as November 15, 1914, according to one history of the river trade. The following spring, 1915 the boat drifted to a point about six miles south of Oslo, where it sank.
In 1976, two divers entered the river, going down 15 to 20 feet, slipped a thick steel cable around the Fram’s boiler with a caterpillar on the riverbank, winching line out of the water. Drawing the slack out of the iron line and then winching line out of the water, the bow rose majestically from the deep, with the steamboat's letters emerging one by one. The boiler, 42 inches wide and 16 feet long, came out of the river with some pipes and a few loose planks. A brass valve on one of the pipes turned easily, as though it had been manufactured the day before, exposing bright metal underneath.
The Fram was 71.7 feet long and 18.8 feet wide and weighed 22 tons. The Fram was equipped with a 32 horse power engine and a 40 horse power boiler. It was served by a crew of 14.
Ralph Solem, a former resident, found the boat's specifications on an old registration document. He put the documents about the Fram in a scrapbook he has assembled over the years.
A committee has been formed to explore ways to preserve the history of this boiler.
Steam boat History
I the spring of 1885, Captain Northrope, of St. Anthony, Minn., made an attempt during a freshet to cross from the headwaters of the Minnesota River to the Red River, but was compelled to abandon his boat where it had become fast in the mud. The Hudson Bay Company purchased the machinery to remove it to Georgetown, Minn. and there built the steamer International, first to navigate the Red River. The settlement of the province of Manitoba about this time soon opened up quite a traffic on the river.
Small toy paddle wheel boats such as this one were available for play by young children. Jerry Peeler built a variety of these little steamers.
A boat race is planned for 2008.