The vessel should not be confused with other steamers of the same name, some of which were similarly designed and operated in British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington.

Farrell by the Kootenay River Navigation Company, a firm with financial backing from Spokane, Washington business interests.

[2] In June 1897 North Star started making runs from Jennings, Montana up the Kootenay river to Fort Steele, BC, where significant mining activity was occurring.

The route ran through the dangerous stretch of Jennings Canyon where most of the sternwheelers on the upper Kootenay eventually were wrecked or seriously damaged.

[2] In October 1898 railroads were completed in the Kootenay region, and traffic quickly shifted over to the railways, leaving the steamboats without business.

North Star was laid up at Jennings, Montana with other upper Kootenay river sternwheelers until 1901, when the A. Guthrie Co. put them back in service to transport supplies for construction of the extension of the Great Northern Railway to Fernie, BC.

When North Star came to the lock, Armstrong solved the width problem by simply sawing 5 or 6 inches off the guards (the thick timber running along the top outside edge of a sternwheeler's hull).

In those days, ore was packed out of mines in the Kootenay country by stuffing oxhides full of the mineral, and dragging or sliding the filled hides to the nearest steamboat landing or rail depot.

Anderson had a number of oxhides on board North Star and he had them filled with sand and piled up to form temporary lock gates.