198 British Columbia Women’s Institutes

South Okanagan and Similkhameen

The history of the South Okanagan and Similkameen is a story of
fur brigades, missionaries, gold rushes, sternwheelers, cattle ranches and
fruit farms—a story of the men and women who travelled the Dewdney
and Hudson’s Bay Fur Company Brigade trails to pioneer the settlement
and development of the southern interior of British Columbia.

Princeton began as a trading centre where Indian tribes came to barter
for red ochre. In 1860 the Royal Engineers after surveying the townsite
named it Princeton after Edward Prince of Wales who was touring Canada
at that time. The earliest settler John Fall Allison, after whom Allison
Pass is named, arrived in a covered wagon to establish the first farm and
cattle ranch there. Another early settler Francis Richter initiated cattle
ranching in the Cawston-Keremeos area. In 1860 he drove forty-two head
of cattle via Osoyoos into the Similkameen and homesteaded where the
village of Cawston now stands. He later sold out to Richard Cawston
whose name the village assumed. Keremeos meaning the “Meeting of the
Winds” is a very old settlement dating back to 1813 when Sir Alexander
Ross visited there to secure information about the country and procure
furs. In 1860 the Hudson’s Bay Company established a trading post there
with French Canadian Francois Deschiquette in charge. ‘The town dates
from 1880 the same year that tobacco and fruit were first grown in this area.

The other historical route—the Hudson’s Bay Company Fur Brigade
Trail, now marked by a cairn unveiled at Westbank August 24, 1949, was
the century-old route through the Okanagan from the south. The first
white men to enter the Osoyoos valley were a Scotsman, David Stuart,
and his French companion, Montigny, representatives of the Pacific Fur
Company. On September 11th, 1813 they passed through the valley on
their way north to prospect for a better trade route to the great interior
of British Columbia. Consequently Fort Kamloops became an important
fur trading centre and Osoyoos a campsite on the fur trader’s trail over
which many entered the colony. ‘The dormant possibilities of the vast
region between the Thompson River and the boundary line, impressed
these travellers even though they passed them by for the more alluring
gold regions.

The first foothold of civilization in this district was the Roman Catholic
mission established by Father Pandosy in 1859 on Okanagan Lake near
Kelowna. He also erected the first church, established the first school,
raised the first cattle, performed the first marriage and planted the first
orchard.

The priest in buckskins soon had competition from an Anglican priest
in hand-me-downs. Born Henry Irwin in Ireland, Father Pat had arrived
in the Okanagan by way of Oxford. His cathedrals were the rowdy bars of
the Okanagan’s mining boom-towns. Father Pandosy and Father Pat
shepherded the valley through the gold boom days, through the home-
steading days, through the stage coach days and through a picturesque
period of freighting on Okanagan Lake.