Rotary Park (Saskatoon)

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This large public park is named in recognition of the support Saskatoon Rotarians gave to its creation and maintenance. It is a popular spot for sunbathing and games of frisbee. It was formerly the home of the Blairmore Ring, a monument to potash mining, now relocated to the airport. Much of the park is landfill; originally the riverbank ran approximately where the roadway is now. The usual steamer mooring was in the middle of the present park.

This stretch of riverbank has seen its share of excitement. In 1908, Saskatoon's "greatest" (and perhaps only) marine disaster occurred when the steamboat "SS City of Medicine Hat" ran into a pier of the Traffic Bridge, capsized, and sank. No lives were lost in the incident. Nearly a century later in 2006, the boat's anchor was recovered by a river rescue diver from the fire department while on a training exercise. More artifacts were found in 2008, and the main wreck was discovered in 2012, buried under eight metres of landfill and mud.

In Saskatoon's early days other steamboats, right out of a Mark Twain novel, steamed past the fledgling city. Unfortunately, river levels were even more erratic in the late 1800s than they are today, and many was the steamboat captain who would have to "grasshopper" his way over sand bars by jamming the steamboat's wood spars into the sand and winching the boat forward foot by hard gained foot.

A plaque at the entrance to the parking area recognizes the short-lived era of steamboating on the Saskatchewan. Steamboats were soon replaced by a more efficient rail system.