by lakecountry | Jun 22, 2020 | History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
Following upon previous blogs on logging in the region in the 1920s, I have more recent and personal remembrances to relate. My father, Harold, and grandfather, Harry, operated a portable bush mill on the Commonage in the 1950s, supported by horse logging. The...
by lakecountry | Jun 16, 2020 | History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
Eliza Jane Swalwell’s bungalow was located near the entrance to Swalwell Park, toward Middle Vernon Creek. The Swalwell barn also faced Bottom Wood Lake Road a little further east. Jane’s nephew, Pete Simpson, who is now ninety-two years of age, remembers visiting his...
by lakecountry | Jun 10, 2020 | History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
Our blog on the Munson Simpson sawmill that operated in Winfield from 1927 to 1929 appeared earlier. Another blog, “Log chutes in Lake Country” discussed the log chute that over a decade earlier had transported logs from Fir Valley to the Oyama bench land and hence to...
by lakecountry | May 20, 2020 | History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
This is the third in a series of blogs exploring the logging history of Lake Country, this one focussing on transporting logs to the Munson and Simpson mill in Winfield in the 1927-9 period. Large logs were preferred because the end-use was to make knot-free Applebox...
by lakecountry | Apr 23, 2020 | History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
The donation of historic photographs by Pete Simpson to the Lake Country Museum has led me to examine the circumstances behind the building of a sawmill in Winfield in 1927. These photographs were of the Munson and Simpson mill located on the Beaver Lake Road. For...
by lakecountry | Jan 16, 2020 | Guest Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Natural History, Pam Laing
Great Blue Heron Moving quietly and slowly, inching forward with neck arched, feet slowly raised thenplaced, and dagger-like beak poised, a Great Blue Heron stalks its prey. Then comes a lunge,a stab – and the fish, frog or cicada is toast. While Great Blue...
by lakecountry | Oct 9, 2019 | Guest Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Natural History, Pam Laing
California Quail The days are growing shorter and cooler and the colourful summer birds that came north to breed and raise their young have gone south in search of warmer temperatures and food. So it’s time to turn our attention to birds that stay here in fall and...
by lakecountry | Jul 2, 2019 | Guest Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Natural History, Pam Laing
Eastern and Western Kingbird Kingbirds are large flycatchers. In spite of the names, “Eastern” and “Western” both are regular visitors in our valley during the summer months. Westerns, as you might expect, are only found in the western US, our part of BC, as...
by lakecountry | Apr 8, 2019 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
Economic activity in Oyama really increased with the opening of the navigation canal across the isthmus in Oyama in 1908. The first steamer, theCity of Vernon, passed through the canal on September 3, 1908, creating a water link to the north end of Kalamalka...
by lakecountry | Mar 8, 2019 | Bloggers, History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
I have recently been in correspondence with Alan Aldred, a gentleman who was raised in Oyama and whose family history he is writing. The two photographs below are of stores run by his grandfather, Frederick Harry Aldred. The first photograph comes from Alan’s...
by lakecountry | Jan 30, 2019 | History of Lake Country, Thomson, Duane
In 1922 seven young, tanned orchardists from Oyama visited the Summerland Experimental Station, presumably to learn some of the science behind growing apples. All were from England, some having arrived very recently. Thank you to Diane Eyles Turner for the photograph...
by lakecountry | Nov 21, 2018 | Gibbons, Richard, History of Lake Country
Wednesday, October 31st, 2018 marked the end of a unique and significant connection to the history of this community. Anne Land On that date Anne Land of Okanagan Centre died peacefully at the age of 104. Her life and death were significant in so many ways. It was...
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