In the summer of 1910 a reporter for the Calgary Herald, Leroy Victor Kelly, boarded the S.S. Peace River at Peace River Crossing for a trip to Fort Vermilion. After waiting for the boat to return from taking on wood as fuel Kelly notes:

" At 2 o'clock the boat was back. A purser assigned us to our cabins, and there were white sheets on the berths. Everything was as trim and neat as a steamer on the Great Lakes, and the table manners were observed with great care, the passengers being allotted seats and tables, the captain taking the head and the purser the foot of the first table. There was a real service provided, cooking of a sort, and the course service was handled by a boy, who was better in many ways than the real waiters in some of the restaurants of the west.

As the boat pulled out, the citizens, and entire population of Peace River Crossing, gathered on the bank and gave us god-speed and good wishes. We responded with three cheers and a tiger. Three half-breeds with loaded rifles knelt on the bank and fired the royal salute, with riffle muzzles pointed skyward and the butts on the ground. Again we cheered and again the salute crackled out, then the steamer swung wide and took the big turn, and the current and the stern wheel paddles soon took us from the sight of the beautiful Peace River Crossing."

L.V. Kelly. North With Peace River Jim., edited by Hugh A. Dempsey. Historical Paper No. 2, Glenbow-Alberta Insitutute, Calgary, 1972, p.27.