[2] Small sternwheelers like Marion played an important role in development by allowing miners, loggers and entrepreneurs to penetrate the region.

They also established the economic viability of steamboat operations in eastern British Columbia, which led to the placement of larger steamers on the routes that the small boats had pioneered.

Armstrong put Marion on the Revelstoke-Sproat's Landing route, running in opposition to the catamaran steamer Despatch, the only other steam vessel then in operation on the Arrow Lakes.

This was important because at that time the Upper and Lower Arrow Lakes were separated by a shallow stretch of water known as the "narrows".

The Great Northern Railway also began surveying the same route, with a view towards constructing a completing line on the opposite of the river.