The Hallett will be going back in the water, and this time for good, according to Fort Frances’ town council, but the budget to restore the 18-metre (60-foot) tugboat to its spot in the water could change.
“I honestly don’t think anybody will know what the final cost will be, simply because it will be taking place over time, and right now we are existing in a time where the cost of living is accelerating because of our construction costs. I think it could likely change,” Mayor Andrew Hallikas said at Monday’s council meeting.
“It’s come back and forth to the council several times. I’m very pleased the council made a decision. It was a democratic decision – we also agonized over it, argued over it. We surely drove the administration crazy, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s the right decision.”
Fort Frances has been working to preserve and display two historic tugboats, the Hallett and the Owandem, but council has been divided over how and where to showcase them due to high costs and site complications.
In 2022, the Hallett was removed from its waterfront berth after deterioration was discovered in a concrete cradle it had been sitting in at the waterfront for more than a decade. For safety reasons, the town decided to remove the Hallett from public display and place it in storage until a new plan could be made.
“When it came out of the water, it was a once-in-100-year flood,” Councillor Bill Morrison said.
“The Ranier bridge is a total bottleneck. Just looking at the options on the table, one tender came back at $1.7 million. I talked to the people who built the cradle, and they said they could come in and recertify it to have it back in there again. When I talked to the engineer, I told him there were arms to move it up and down and he didn’t know that they were installed.”
Hallikas thinks the decision to put the Hallett back in the water is final but cautioned that the cost of the project could change.
“It’s a historic landmark for our community,” Councillor Kaleb Firth said.
“I appreciate the perspective with a lot of council in trying to preserve that history, and we’re just trying to do that in a fiscally responsible way. With any project right now, it’s always a moving target. We just try to make sound decisions with the information that is provided.”
The Hallett had been a prominent heritage landmark at the waterfront for decades, symbolizing the town’s logging history. Built in 1940 by Russell Brothers Ltd. it was hauled in pieces by rail to Fort Frances, then reassembled for use by the local pulp and paper mill. In its day, the Hallett was the largest and most powerful boat on Rainy Lake, used to haul massive log booms. It remained in service until 1974, when logging operations shifted away from water transport.
The smaller 7.6-metre (25-foot) Owandem, also built by Russell Brothers, was also used during the same period to help move and guide log booms to the mill, often working in tighter areas where the larger Hallett couldn’t maneuver as easily.
