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Highlights

• Summerland Museum: Summerland’s Link to the Past
• The Autobiography of Arthur Frederick Cotton
• Penticton Fire Department Centennial, by Glenda Emerson
• Balcomo Ranch, by David Gregory
• BC Dragoons from a South Okanagan Angle, by David B J Snyder, UE CD
• The Okanagan’s First Non-Native Settlement, by David Gregory (on the 200-year anniversary of the Brigade Trail
• QUest to Complete the Hope-Princeton Highway

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Highlights

• Alexis Smith, An Okanagan girl Come Home
• The Old Peachland School, by Richard Smith
• Book review: Bronc Busters and Hay Sloops: Ranching in the West in the Early 20th Century, by Ken Mather
• Summerland and the Origins of Hockey and Football, by David Gregory
• The Schedule of the Hungry Hangman, by Mike Cotton
• Summerland and the CPR, by David Gregory
• Mary Spencer and Bill Miner, the Okanagan Connection

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Highlights

• South Similkameen Museum Society, by Judy Chisholm
• The Moving and the Burning of the Somerset Inn
• Ted Trump, Our Man of Vision
• The Night the Town Burned Down: The Summerland Fires of 1922, by David Gregory
• The Garnet Fire Revisited, 18 years later, photography by Mike Biden
• The Wandering Fire Pump: The Okanagan’s First Firefighting Tool
• Fire Brigades: Vernon, Kelowna, and Penticton

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Highlights

• Book review: Uncovering Treasures From the Earth: The Life Story of Prospector Thomas James McQuillan, by Gordon I Schnare
• The Okanagan’s Centennial of the Canadian Navy, by D B J Snyder
• What Is Its Name Anyway – Canyon, KLO, Hydraulic, or Pooley Creek?
• From the Reil Rebellion to a Birder in the Okanagan: The story of magistrate George Guernsey
• A Mine Too Far Out: The story of Rock Creek Quartz Camp
• A Sometime Railway: The history of the Copper Mountain Subdivision, by Brian Wilson and Joe Smuin
• Karl Springer in British Columbia, by Gordon Schnare
• You Can See Hedley from Here! The story of Gold Mountain, excerpts from the diaries of P F Goldenrath (1905) and F Bailey, ME (1913)
• The Rock Creek Rebellion: A First-hand Account, by Robert Stevenson, customs officer, Osoyoos 1861

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Highlights

• Book review: Okanagan Above, by Mike Biden
• A Christmas Miracle: The Crash of CPA Flight 4
• Carl Agar: A Fascination with Flight, the story of the founder of Okanagan Helicopters (now Canadian Helicopters)
• A Wing and a Prayer: A tribute to Cliff Renfrew, Kelowna’s pioneer aviator
• A Military Airport for Penticton
• Airport Planned for Trout Creek
• Vernon Air Races of 1931
• Oliver: Largest Airport in the Okanagan in 1937, by Jack Bennest
• Air Battle Over Belgium, by Dr David Gregory

In 1905 Naramata was originally called East Summerland, but the confusion was obvious to all, so Mr. Robinson, now a resident; thought it would be nice to call the place “Brighton Beach” in honor of his family’s roots in England.

One fateful night in 1907, Mrs. Gillespie, wife of the postmaster, held a séance. You see, Mrs. Gillespie was one of the most prominent mediums of the American Spiritualistic Church of which there was quite a following in the area. It was common for her to invite the leading families to attend her meetings and there is information that many attended with great regularity.

In a letter from Mr. Robinson, sent in 1931, he writes, “The question of the name Naramata has been identified with claims of spiritualism and I hesitate to explain to you as you will not know what I am talking about unless you too, have spent the past 30 or 40 years trying to investigate the subject.”

“I will, however, give you some of the facts as I got them from the denizens of the spirit world and you can decide how much credence to put in them.”

“Mrs. Gillespie, during a spiritualistic trance, was entered by the spirit of a great Sioux Indian Chief named Big Moose. Big Moose spoke of his dearly loved wife in the most endearing terms and called her by the name Nar-ra-mat-tah, as she was the ‘Smile of Manitou’. I was so struck by this that I decided this was a good name for our Village. We talked of it and it was thought to drop the extra letters and call the town ‘Naramata’.”

Author Leonard Norris, in his 1935 article “A Strange Phenomenon”, writes, “Are we to assume that what happened at Naramata, when this word was brought to their attention, was but the resurrection from the limb of forgotten memories of something previously known, forgotten until it was revived by the excitement and exaltation of the medium? Or, are we to assume that in the silence of that darkened room, something actually happened which staggers the imagination. Who knows?”

Mrs. Maisonville of Naramata wrote in 1948, “I suggest that perhaps Mrs. Gillespie drew the name from an Australian source as her husband was from there. Unconsciously she could have recalled the word Naramata from the aboriginal word for ‘place of water’.”

Needless to say, Naramata has a favoured existence for those who live in a place so honored as to be named from the “other world”. Let’s hope that Mrs. Gillespie’s bond with the spirits lives on, so we can all be watched over and bask in the “Smile of Manitou”.

Excerpts from the Okanagan Historical Society Annual Reports and “The Smile of Manitou” by Don Salting, Skookum Publications, research by Brian Wilson.

Mr. Hudson left Scarborough, England with his sister to meet up with her fiancé, Harold Willis, in the small village of Kelowna, right in the middle of nowhere. Huddy’s parents had insisted that he accompany her, as a Lady of the Victorian era did not travel alone. He had protested at first, but after some deep thought and the fact he hated his brewers assistant job, he decided to take the trip. After all, he could take photographs with his plate camera along the way.

The Atlantic crossing and subsequent CPR adventure were long and trying for those traveling “Coach”; particularly hard for a 21 year-old and his 19 year old sister. But all’s well that end’s well. They arrived in the sunshine of Okanagan Landing, and there on the wharf was Harold Willis.

Having had quite enough of his Sister’s company, Huddy took it upon himself to part company with the love-birds and take a look around the bustling town of Vernon.

He needed to get the plates from his camera developed, and that’s how he met up with Alex Worgan at the Aberdeen Studio. This stout Scotsman and his friend Charles Holliday, both photographers, had come around the horn in ’88. After wandering about the Cariboo for some time, they settled in this area, which was originally called “Priest Valley”. Huddy was delighted to meet up with fellow Brits. Mr. Worgan said they were all Brits here.

It seems that Mr. Worgan had a job for Huddy. The studio had an ongoing contract with the CPR to photograph the building of railway projects throughout the valley. Huddy couldn’t believe his luck! Here he was in the New World, with a good paying job, doing just what he loved. He headed for the CPR ways at Okanagan Landing to photograph the new sternwheelers. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Mr. Hudson bought Aberdeen Studio in Vernon, and then opened a studio in Kelowna in 1908. He ventured down the lake to Penticton and bought a small studio run by Mr. Fraser-Campbell, and traveled throughout the valley taking pictures until he signed on for the Great War in 1916.

He took on a partner in Penticton in 1912, and became Hudson-Chadwick Studio, but it was short lived. That’s when he met a fellow who was also from Scarborough, named Lumb Stocks. The studio then became Hudson-Stocks while the war was on until 1919, when Huddy informed Mr. Stocks that he would not be returning to Canada.

Stocks’ studio continued the legacy of visual history until the 1970′s. This legacy survived up the lake with the foresight of other subsequent photographers, Judd Ribelin of Kelowna, and George Meeres of Vernon, who found Hudson plates in their studios that were just too wonderful to throw out.

Photographs courtesy of the Stocks family

In the 1920′s, the Arnott Stage to Osoyoos was a large nine-passenger open touring car. It carried as much mail and freight as could be crammed in next to the dust-eating passengers.

The first Greyhound bus arrived in Penticton on a Kamloops-to-Oroville trip in 1931. It was a 21-seat GM Bus with a Cadillac motor that picked up freight and passengers at McKeen’s Drug Store in the 100 block of Main St.

Fred McLeod was the first Greyhound operator in the 1930′s when he amalgamated a handfull of small independent freight handlers into a single service. His office and depot was on the corner of Forbes and Front St. near the court house.

Around the start of the Second World War, the depot moved to the corner of Martin Street and Naniamo Avenue, with the repair barn a few buildings south. Then in 1955, the depot moved into the Price Charles Hotel across the street.

As personal automobiles gained in popularity, Greyhound found it no longer desirable to be in the centre of town, so the depot was moved in 1965, to Ellis Street, where it is today.

In 1912, a small flimsy biplane was assembled at the Armstrong Exhibition and an attempt was made to fly it. The plane crashed, before reaching take-off speed. Then it was disassembled, re-crated and taken home.

The 1914 Kelowna Regatta was host to a Curtis-type float plane flown by Weldon Cook.

This craft was also assembled on site after shipment by train and barge, but it did fly, to the absolute amazement of the crowd on hand.

The Okanagan’s first real aerial visitor was the legendary pioneer pilot, Ernie Hoy.

On a promotional dare from the publisher of the Vancouver World newspaper, the Aero League of Vancouver took on a flight over the Rockies to see if an airmail route could be established to Calgary.

Now, consider that the technology of the day only allowed a ceiling of 7000 feet, so crossing the Rocky Mountains was the impossible dream.

The best airplane available in 1919 was the Curtis Jenny JN4 Biplane, a plane with open cockpit and very primitive instruments. The Jenny was a favourite of barnstormers after the Great War, and a few were being used by the Aero League to take photos and search for schools of salmon. This airplane was chosen for the flight to Calgary.

The pilots drew lots to see who would take on this flight, and Captain Hoy drew the short straw. The other pilots began to wager how far Ernie would get before crashing. They even went so far as to suggest techniques for surviving crashes such as following the railway and landing on snow sheds, or trying to line up two trees so the wings would come off but cockpit would stay intact.

Just before 4 AM on August 7, 1919, Ernie Hoy took off east along the Fraser River, using a railway map for navigation.

He flew up the Fraser Canyon to Kamloops and then on to Vernon. At each stop he would drop off special postmarked mail and newspapers, and take on fuel. When he entered the Crowsnest Pass out of Cranbrook he was skimming the treeline at 6900 feet. He was in Calgary at 9 PM.

Ernie wasn’t so lucky on his return trip. After he fueled up in Golden and was attempting take-off, a young native boy ran out on the airstrip, and Captain Hoy had to swerve to miss him. He clipped the trees and nosed in, destroying his prop. No one was hurt, but Hoy’s trusty Jenny returned to Vancouver on the train.

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Highlights

• Book review: History of the KLO Benches: Their Tragedies and Comedies, by T I Gillespie
• Kenny McLean, World Champion Rodeo Star
• Upper Trout Creek, by David Gregory
• The Coquihalla Wreck of ’26, a song of the Kettle Valley Railway, by ‘Whitehouse’
• Photo essay: James Ritchie, Faith and Folly
• Okanagan Internment Camps 1914–1920
• After the Games are Over, Where Did They Go – Billy Warwick, Penticton Vees forward (excerpt from Globe and Mail)
• A Wide View from the Wheelhouse: entries from Captain Joe Weeks’ logbook
• Rare treasure uncovered: Mother Earth’s Treasure Vaults, a booklet of early mining communities in the South Interior
• Sicamous, a poem by George Murdock, 1889
• Big Jim Ryan, Premier W A C Bennett’s Personal Photographer
• KVR Roundhouse
• Tales from the Trails: KVR Gone but Not Forgotten
• The Three Gables Hotel, a look back by Peter Stocks