by lakecountry | Nov 28, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Carol, Thomson, Duane
Fourteen years ago (2000) Ken Ellison published a book, Irrigation is King: A Century of Water in Oyama, BC. 1892-2000. This work exhaustively examined and interpreted the land, water and irrigation records of Oyama, BC. Now, a complementary video, Flume. The story of...
by lakecountry | Nov 21, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Carol
Father Charles Pandosy arrived in 1859 with the Lawrence brothers and William Pion. They spent that hard winter in a crude shelter on the shores of Duck Lake before moving camp to Mission Creek and founding their church. The early 1870s saw the arrival in...
by lakecountry | Nov 14, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
During the early years of the fur trade, hundreds of young men moved to Rupert’s Land and the Columbia to work for the North West Company or, after 1821, the amalgamated firm, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). No white women accompanied these men and if the men stayed...
by lakecountry | Nov 7, 2014 | Bloggers, Jim Taylor
On November 3, 1917, a young man “somewhere in France,” serving in the Canadian Army as a battery commander’s assistant, sat down to write a letter to his wife back home in New Brunswick. She was due to give birth to their first child. “I have been gazing into the...
by lakecountry | Oct 24, 2014 | Guest Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Mark Gill
The name Oyama was chosen by the suggestion of the mother of Post Master, Dr. W. H. Irvine. The post office was established in 1906 and required a name. At this time, news reports of Field Marshal Oyama Iwao’s military accomplishments from the Russo-Japanese War,...
by lakecountry | Oct 17, 2014 | Bloggers, Hayes, Bob, History of Lake Country
Recently, I wrote a short article about our family cabin on Clement Road, at the south end of Wood Lake. In this article I made reference to the adjacent campground and cabins known as “Sam’s”. This facility, also known as Wood Lake Resort, was a popular tourist...
by lakecountry | Oct 10, 2014 | Guest Bloggers, Natural History, Pam Laing
Which birds might I see today? Red-tailed Hawks As the leaves fall and temperatures cool, hawk migration goes into high gear. Those species of hawk that came here to breed in the summer go south and those that bred in the High Arctic come for the winter. But the hawk...
by lakecountry | Oct 3, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Carol
“Colonel” John Brixton, an English man, lived across the lake before moving to [Okanagan] Centre where Dick Ash now lives. He took care of the lighthouse on the island in Carr’s Landing. Although a veteran of both the Boer and World War I he was not...
by lakecountry | Sep 26, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Carol
My grandfather1, John Brixton, was called The Colonel. No one really knows why, but it is likely because he resembled the picture of the sailor on “Players Tobacco” tins. Actually, the Colonel’s birth name was Mark Joseph Ellis. He was born in...
by lakecountry | Sep 19, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Carol
December 12, 1918. Vernon News A rather unfortunate accident happened on “The Railroad” last Saturday. Rev. Mr. Cassidy was driving and his team of horses became frightened and ran away throwing Mr. Cassidy out of the rig. Mr. Henry Irving who had just been offered a...
by lakecountry | Sep 12, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
The earliest domestic cattle in the interior arrived from the Columbia Valley in the 1840s, trailed in by the Hudson’s Bay Company and traded among the Okanagan Indians. By 1850, Okanagan Chief Nicola owned a large number of horses and “a good many cattle.”...
by lakecountry | Sep 5, 2014 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Carol
July 10, 1919 The Vernon News “Mr. H. B. Thomson of Indian Head, Saskatchewan, with his family arrived in Oyama last Friday, having motored the entire way, coming through the States. Mr. Thomson has bought the Nelson Ranch and will make his home there. We are...
