The fate of two retired tugboats considered culturally and historically significant to Fort Frances may finally be headed toward a resolution.
After several years debating how to preserve the Hallett and the Owandem, as the larger boat was removed from its waterfront berth in 2022, whereupon the damage to the concrete berth was discovered, town council has rejected a plan that would have seen them both displayed in a park on land after projected costs ballooned.
Instead, it has directed administration staff to report on a more modest proposal that would see the larger Hallett returned to its original location on the water and the Owandem moved to a land-based location.
Fort Frances Mayor Andrew Hallikas said a decision on what’s to happen to the vessels is long overdue.
“It’s ping-ponged back and forth to administration many, many times,” Hallikas said. “I think they’re getting tired of having it come back to them.”
The Hallett and the Owandem are retired tugboats that once served the town’s former pulp and paper industry. The boats were built by Russel Brothers, a steel hull boat manufacturer known Canada-wide that began in Fort Frances in 1907. About 30 years later, the company moved to Owen Sound.
“That connection makes Fort Frances part of the Russel Brothers legacy and makes the Howlett and Owandem part of ours,” said Sarah Marusyk, a member of the museum and culture advisory committee. The boats’ story speaks of the area’s working waterfront and is “a story of industry, resilience, and community identity,” she said.
The town began exploring options for restoring and displaying the Hallett and Owandem in 2020. Then in 2022, severe flooding damaged the Hallett’s original concrete berth. In 2023, the town received $487,500 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) to support the restoration of both vessels and the design of a new park and drydock display.
Council began exploring conceptual designs for a heritage park at the west end of the Sorting Gap Marina, but responses to a tender came in at more than $1.7 million – not including the refurbishment of the Hallett.
In all, five options were considered:
- Award the project to the company that submitted the lone bid for the park, creating an unbudgeted overage and requiring more than $1 million from the Museum Projects Reserve and Corporate Projects Reserve funds.
- Have the park completed over two phases within available budget limits. This would require re-engineering of the current design package and issuing a new tender.
- Use existing budget resources to relocate the Hallett and Owandem to a permanent, non-public access storage location.
- Digitally scan and preserve the boats before scrapping them. The history and local heritage represented by the tugboats would be displayed by way of three-dimensional images.
- Option Five came with a more affordable $750,000 price tag, and would see the Hallett returned to its original crib in the river – after repairs to in-water foundations damaged by the flood and repeated seasonal freezing and thawing – with the Owandem displayed on land.
It was this fifth option that the council has directed the administration to consider and report back on.
Marusyk said she appreciates the tight timelines and funding challenges that weigh heavily on decisions regarding the Hallett and Owandem, urging council to save the vessels for their contribution to Fort Frances’ story and community identity.
“We don’t intend to detract from those realities,” she said. “But we just hope to remind everyone why this project matters and why it merits thoughtful positive steps forward.”
While Marusyk called a plan to create digital copies interesting, particularly to preserve the Hallett’s history, accessibility, and extend its reach to new audiences. Digitization would enhance public education and tourism assets, “but it cannot replace it,” she said.
No committee members have spoken in favour of scrapping the tugs. Until a final decision has been made, and the boats remain in their temporary locations – the Hallett at Sorting Gap Marina and the Owandem in municipal storage.
