Fourteen years ago (2000) Ken Ellison published a book, Irrigation is King: A Century of Water in Oyama, BC. 1892-2000. This work exhaustively examined and interpreted the land, water and irrigation records of Oyama, BC. Now, a complementary video, Flume. The story of the original irrigation...
Father Charles Pandosy arrived in 1859 with the Lawrence brothers and William Pion. They spent that hard winter in a crude shelter on the shores of Duck Lake before moving camp to Mission Creek and founding their church. The early 1870s saw the arrival in K’Lakokum (Winfield) of Oregon...
“Colonel” John Brixton, an English man, lived across the lake before moving to [Okanagan] Centre where Dick Ash now lives. He took care of the lighthouse on the island in Carr’s Landing. Although a veteran of both the Boer and World War I he was not a real Colonel. That was a...
My grandfather1, John Brixton, was called The Colonel. No one really knows why, but it is likely because he resembled the picture of the sailor on “Players Tobacco” tins. Actually, the Colonel’s birth name was Mark Joseph Ellis. He was born in Islington, Middlesex, England in...
December 12, 1918. Vernon News A rather unfortunate accident happened on “The Railroad” last Saturday. Rev. Mr. Cassidy was driving and his team of horses became frightened and ran away throwing Mr. Cassidy out of the rig. Mr. Henry Irving who had just been offered a lift made a jump out and cut...
July 10, 1919 The Vernon News “Mr. H. B. Thomson of Indian Head, Saskatchewan, with his family arrived in Oyama last Friday, having motored the entire way, coming through the States. Mr. Thomson has bought the Nelson Ranch and will make his home there. We are very pleased to extend a...
The first organized ministry of the Anglican Church began in Okanagan Centre in 1909 with the arrival of Rev. Owen Bulkeley. The Synod of the Dioceses of New Westminster of that same year had reported that two clergymen were needed immediately in the Keremeos and Okanagan districts. Okanagan...
“1917: Bras get a boost from the U.S. government’s decision to ration metal for domestic use during the First World War. Bras used less metal than corsets so they became the undergarment of choice.” Source: “Real Life talking point.” Chatelaine. August 2014, p....
August 4, 1914: Germany invades Belgium, beginning World War I. “In Flanders Fields the poppies grow and remains of an inordinate number of Okanagan soldiers lie buried. Many believe the Okanagan Valley lost more men per capita in the First World War than any region in Canada. The names of...
“Q’sapi is a phrase in the Okanagan language that means ‘long time ago.’ It is an expression often heard among the Okanagan people to introduce a story.”1 So begins the Introduction to the book Q’sapi. A History of Okanagan People as Told by Okanagan Families,...
In 1896 an elderly French cook by the name of Frank “Frenchy” Stevens, who often stayed with Northcote Caesar, was fishing off the Island* when he saw a sea serpent very close to the boat. He described it as being about 20 feet long with a head like a sheep. Caesar wrote “we did...
“The island [in Okanagan Lake] that many still call Whiskey Island has a colourful history. Legend has it that Interior Salish stored food and supplies on the Island in order to keep it safe from bears. Squaws who were left in charge were sometimes abducted by raiding Shuswap Indians, so it...