Regular contributors to the Lake Country Museum & Archives Blog.
Every so often we receive gifts that are extraordinarily special, and many of the most appreciated don’t come with a hefty price tag. They usually come from very special people. Some of my gifts this year were the much treasured ... [Continue Reading]
Flooding is common in the Okanagan. Our post ‘Flooding in Lake Country’ touches on this, as we noted how flooding occurred nearly every year in the early 1900s. In 1908, the Oyama canal was built, connecting Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake. This... [Continue Reading]
Kokanee, a form of landlocked salmon, are Indigenous to the Okanagan and at one time were abundant within Okanagan and Wood Lake. Kokanee adapted from sockeye salmon, who migrated from the Columbia River approximately 10,000 years ago after the last... [Continue Reading]
Written by Deana Asham. Named after the shape of its leaves, arrowleaf balsamroot is an Indigenous species to the Okanagan Valley. Being part of the same family as the sunflower, Asteraceae, they share a similar appearance; however, they flower slightly... [Continue Reading]
Richard and Arthur Chatterton were part of an aspiring, middle class, English family. Their parents, George Joseph and Jane Edwards Chatterton and family appear in the 1891 UK census in Alvaston, Derbyshire, Herts, England. Their father was a metal tube... [Continue Reading]
A new two-room school was built in 1917 and in 1921 a third room was added for the new Oyama High School. The catchment area included Winfield and those students arrived by car or bus. The accompanying photograph was taken... [Continue Reading]
In the summer of 1986 a casual glance out to the beautiful waters off Okanagan Centre just might reveal the unmistakable profile of a submarine conning tower. ... [Continue Reading]
Thomas Wood, cattle rancher and Justice of the Peace from Lake Country, wrote three letters from Vernon to Frederick Hussey, Superintendent of Provincial Police in Victoria requesting his assistance with a rustling case 1 . Hussey replied to these. Some excerpts... [Continue Reading]
Settlers began planting fruit trees in the Okanagan in the 1860s. Thought at this time planting fruit was considered a risk because the fruit was perishable and the only means of transportation could take up to two weeks to get... [Continue Reading]
Two Gibbons brothers, Harry from Ellison and Clare from Okanagan Centre went into partnership to establish OK Sawmills sometime shortly after 1940. The brothers operated their sawmill at a number of locations on the extensive forested slope south and east... [Continue Reading]
