In 1890 the old steamer Coeur d'Alene, which could haul but fifty tons of ore, was abandoned and part of her cabins and superstructure placed on a new hull with a carrying capacity of one hundred tons, built by Sorensen and Johnson on Sanders Beach. This new stern-wheeler, the Georgie Oakes - named after a daughter of the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad - was put on the Coeur d'Alene's old run to the Mission, and for a short time hauled out prodigious quantities of ore from the Coeur d'Alene mining region.
From the Museum of Idaho
The Georgie Oakes was built in 1891. In 1908 the Georgie Oakes was bought and rebuilt by the Red Collar Line at the cost of $10,000. She became the largest and fastest steamboat on Lake Coeur d'Alene. With a fine interior including staterooms and a carrying capacity of 1,000 passengers, she was the "Queen of the Lake" for 29 years. In 1922 the Red Collar Line went into receivership and in 1927 citizens of Coeur d'Alene burned the Georgie Oakes as part of the July 4th celebration.
Steamboats made it possible for people to have easy access to the area around Coeur d'Alene Lake and its interior in a time when there were few roads and no highways. By 1910, there were more than 40 large steamboats on Lake Coeur d'Alene. During weekdays the steamboats carried freight, mail, businessmen and lumberjacks to communities, rail lines and mills on the lake and up the rivers. On Sundays, excursion boats carried passengers on pleasure trips.
The Red Collar Line and the White Star Navigation Company controlled the steamboat business on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Steamboat transportation peaked in about 1915 when the automobile was gaining popularity and railroads were well established. Steamboats continued to operate into the late 1930s but the grandeur of those early years was gone.
From the Museum of North Idaho