J.D. Farrell, the largest steamboat ever built on either the upper Kootenay or Columbia Rivers, and sporting such frontier luxuries as bathrooms, electric lighting, and steam heat, reached Fort Steele on April 28, 1898, her first trip up the Kootenay.
The surviving upper Kootenay boats, North Star, J.D. Farrell, and Gwendoline were laid up at Jennings.