The Westbury Hotel, built in 1908, was one of two hotels in Okanagan Centre in the early 1900s. On Halloween day in 1947, fire broke out and the hotel burned to the ground. Although no one was injured, the guests and the seasonal packinghouse workers who boarded there lost all their possessions....
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century Canada it was common for children to live with their parents until age fourteen and then to live with an employer or surrogate parent where they could learn a trade or, at least, life experience. Girls, except those from upper class homes, generally...
The Okanagan today is identified with beaches, orchards and vineyards, rather than the Wild West. However, this letter, written in 1910, is a glimpse into the Okanagan’s frontier past. James Goldie, manager of the Rainbow Ranche in Okanagan Centre, was questioning George C. Goulding of...