Okanagan History

Okanagan Transportation

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) began in 1892 brought on by increased immigration, the resource market needed to be promoted and in order to do these tasks connections had to be made to reach larger markets outside the Okanagan. Large ranches sub divided to smaller properties to accommodate the migration of people. Major irrigation schemes began in order to tap into the wealth of resources which was planting orchards and fielding crops. The population boom was said to have been between 1907 and 1912. Vernons' first airport was in Mission Hill. Road and Rail improved only to see the end of transportation by lake thus by 1936 the end of an era for the sternwheeler passenger service on Okanagan Lake. New highways to the coast and Alberta created another resource Tourism to the Okanagan Valley.

Captain B.T.Shorts was the first captain to run Okanagan routine lake transportation. Captain Shorts did not have very good luck he lost four of his boats. Mary Victoria Greenhow in 1886 started as a coal burner and ran out of coal resources and transformed her into a wood burner, only to burn down a year after being built. The Jubilee ran for two successful years and sunk in an ice thaw. The CPR put there own boats on the lake and thus was the end of unlucky Captain Short.

Okanagan History Index

By: Elaine Harrison