Okanagan

:This article pertains to a region in Canada. For the similar name in the USA, see Okanogan.

History

The Okanagan Valley was home to First Nations people for thousands of years before others arrived. The Okanagan Nation, an Interior Salish people who lived in the valley from the head of Okanagan Lake downstream to near the river's confluence with the Columbia River in present-day Washington, as well as in the neighbouring Similkameen Valley, numbered in the thousands (no precise figure is known) at the time of contact with European settlers. They were hunter-gatherers, living off wild game and berries and roots for the most part but travelling north or south to fish salmon runs or to trade with other nations.

Related Topics:
Interior Salish - Okanagan Lake - Columbia River - Hunter-gatherers - Salmon runs

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In 1811 came the first non-natives to the Okanagan Valley, a fur trading expedition voyaging north out of Fort Okanogan, a Pacific Fur Company outpost at the confluence of the Okanagan and Columbia rivers. Within fifteen years, fur traders established a route through the valley for passing goods between the Thompson region and the Columbia River for transport to the Pacific. The trade route lasted until 1846, when the Oregon Treaty laid down the border between British North America and the United States west of the Rocky Mountains on the 49th parallel. The new border cut across the valley. To avoid paying tariffs, British traders forged a route that bypassed Fort Okanogan, following the Thompson and Fraser rivers to Fort Langley instead. The Okanagan Valley did not see many more outsiders for a decade afterward.

Related Topics:
1811 - Fur trading - Fort Okanogan - Pacific Fur Company - Thompson - 1846 - Oregon Treaty - British North America - Rocky Mountains - Tariffs - Fraser - Fort Langley

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In 1859, the first European settlers arrived when Father Charles Pandosy led the making of an Oblate mission where Kelowna is now. In the decades that followed, hundreds of ranchers came from all directions to settle on Okanagan Lake. The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858 drove more settlement as some prospectors from the United States took the old Okanagan trade route on their way to the Fraser Canyon. A few staked claims around the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys and found gold and copper in places. A mining industry began in the southern Okanagan region, and more farmers, as well as a small service industry, came to meet the needs of the miners.

Related Topics:
1859 - Father Charles Pandosy - Oblate mission - Fraser Canyon Gold Rush - 1858 - Fraser Canyon

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Fruit production is a hallmark of the Okanagan Valley today, but the industry began with difficulty. Commercial orcharding of apples was first tried there in 1892, but a series of setbacks prevented the major success of commercial fruit crops until the 1920s. But until the 1930s, the demand for shipping fruit and other goods did drive a need for the sternwheeler steamboats that serviced Okanagan Lake: the S.S. Aberdeen from 1886 and then the S.S. Sicamous and S.S. Naramata from 1914. The Sicamous and Naramata survive as a tourist attraction in Penticton.

Related Topics:
1892 - Steamboats - 1886 - 1914 - Penticton

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While the last half-century has grown several resource-based enterprises in the region, for instance forestry in Princeton, the fastest-growing industries in the Okanagan today are tourism and retirement accommodation. Advantaged by its sunny climate, lakes, and winery attractions, the valley has become a hot destination for vacationers and retirees.

Related Topics:
Princeton - Tourism - Retirement - Winery

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