178 | British Columbia Women’s Institutes

North Okanagan and Salmon Crm

The development of the North Okanagan and Salmon Arm district
is associated with the Hudson’s Bay Fur Brigade Trail 1821-47 and the
discovery of gold at Cherry Creek.

In 1863 Captain Houghton chose the land near the northern arm of
Okanagan Lake for a homestead only to find that Governor Douglas had
set aside a Government reserve of ten square miles in this vicinity. It was
not until 1872 that Houghton’s claim to a military grant was recognized.

In the meantime Forbes and Charles Vernon who had accompanied
him to the Okanagan, mined at Cherry Creek and finding this venture
unprofitable pre-empted land between Priest Valley and Okanagan Land-
ing. ‘his land was later acquired by Houghton, and the management of
the Coldstream Ranch, his military grant, was turned over to the Vernons,
who engaged in farming and stock raising, and it was not until 1891 when
Lord Aberdeen purchased the property that it was planted to hops and fruit.

A contemporary of the Vernons, F. J. Barnard and his associates in
Barnard’s express, obtained the B. X. ranch to raise horses for the express
business and use on the Cariboo road. ‘The foundation stock was brought
from New Mexico by Mr. ‘Tingley who finally became the sole owner and
sold to the B. C. Express Company. Other early settlers near the Okanagan
Lake head were Charles O’Keefe and ‘Thomas Greenhow who brought in a
large herd of cattle from Oregon and began farming on a large scale.

All roads in the Okanagan led to and through Priest Valley. The first
person to recognize that the natural advantage of Priest Valley would tend
to make it the commercial centre was W. R. Megaw. In 1885 he established
at that point, the first general store in the Okanagan and around this grew
the usual crossroad village. At first it was called Centreville, but its rapid
growth caused by the commencement of construction of the Shuswap and
Okanagan Railway in 1890, resulted in the incorporation in 1892 of the
town named after Forbes Vernon. ‘The first mayor was W. F. Cameron
and the first newspaper in the Okanagan, the Vernon News, was launched
in 1891 by A. K. Stuart and W. J. Harber.

Along the road which connected Spallumcheen with Priest Valley was
a village called Landsdowne. When the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway
by-passed their centre, the inhabitants headed by Robert Wood, Daniel
Rabbitt and E. C. Carghill, removed their buildings, goods and chattels
closer to the railway to a new site named Armstrong after W. C. Heaton
Armstrong, a banker who arranged the bond issue to finance the building
of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway. It soon became the business centre
of the Spallumcheen and established the Interior Provincial Exhibition,
the biggest fair in the interior.

The pioneers of the Spallumcheen were A. L. Fortune, and Augustus
Schubert, members of the Overland party of 1862. After a brief experiment
in mining, Fortune homesteaded near Enderby in June, 1866, and soon
became the first exporter of farm produce from the Okanagan, and Schubert

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