Chain saws are so plentiful today that it is difficult to think of forestry or home gardening without the use of this lightweight portable saw. Chain saws are a twentieth century development, the first being developed in 1918 by a Canadian millwright, James Shand. It wasn’t until 1926 that the...
The first flour mill in the Central Okanagan: excerpts from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) letters concerning the flour mill built on Mission Creek.1 Father Pierre Richard,2 OMI, accompanied by Father Charles John Felix Adolf Pandosy,3 OMI, arrived in the Okanagan in the autumn of 1859 and...
These days Canada Day celebrations are heavily promoted and generally well attended and we can expect some large crowds at celebrations at Canada’s 150th birthday. However, British Columbia has not always had a harmonious relationship within Canada. Confederation is 1867 was an arrangement between...
A couple years ago, I was watching America’s Funniest Home Videos (AFV) and they showed a clip of an unusual looking critter swimming across a pond with its head held high above the water. It turned out to be a small snake that slithered up the other side. Then recently, I was thinking about an...
We read in the newspaper that the current flood conditions are a “once in two hundred year” event. How would we know that? We have no written records for Lake Country before settlement, which began with Tom Wood’s pre-emption of 160 acres at the south end of Pelmewash (later Wood) Lake in 1871. It...
The Oyama Fire Department was the first organized fire department in what is now Lake Country. A fire at Appleton’s General store, located next to the Oyama Post Office and Thomson’s Garage demonstrated the need for fire suppression in the community. That fire was fought with buckets. An...
The advent of the automobile age, in the early years of the twentieth century, heralded the dawn of a new era in transportation and signalled the slow but steady decline of horse-drawn business and pleasure vehicles. The arrival of automobiles was an historic event. On page 59 of “The History of...
Which bird might I see today? More woodpeckers It’s spring! Are you being woken up early by a woodpecker drumming on your chimney or siding? Try not to get mad. It’s just ‘spring fever’ or as the song says, “Love is in the air”. Your bird is a Northern Flicker and he’s not trying to get food, he’s...
“On April 5, 1917, BC women got the right to vote in provincial elections. The struggle for the vote really heated up across the country in 1912. Most of the action took place at the provincial level. Richard McBride was the premier and he opposed granting suffrage to the women. The...
Continued from Alex Lord’s recollections: Alex Lord’s British Columbia: introduction to Alex Lord; Alex Lord — Recollections of a Rural School Inspector: Kelowna Beginnings; Alex Lord’s memoirs continued; Alex Lord’s memoirs concluded. “During my four years in...
Continued from Alex Lord’s Kelowna Beginnings and the introduction to Alex Lord. “Independent incomes did not tend to strengthen either exertion or initiative, and the fruit industry was to experience deep tribulations when it had to be self supporting later on. When the First World...
Kelowna Beginnings Some Lasting Impressions1 “The year was 1910. British Columbia schools reopened for the autumn term on the third Monday in August. As the just-appointed principal in Kelowna, I arranged to arrive on the previous Friday and so departed from my home in Ontario with my rail...