Product Description
The Okanagan Valley in the interior of British Columbia is known mostly as an ideal tourist destination - a vacationer's paradise rich with sunshine, fruit trees and luxurious beaches. But the area also has a long and fascinating history, which reaches back well before the first apple tree was planted, before the first truckload of beach sand was dumped.
The heart of the book is a selection of articles, essays, letters, diaries, memoirs and observations that first appeared in Okanagan History, a journal published by the Okanagan Historical Society for more than seventy years. Among them are Marie Houghton Brent, granddaughter of the great Chief N'Kwala, who sought to keep the history of the Okanagan Nation alive through her storytelling; Father Pat, the rugged missionary who sometimes had to rely on his own two fists for survival when dealing with rowdy locals in mining camps; and Benjamin Franklin Young, a US Civil War veteran who became one of the first Okanagan settlers to drive stagecoaches.
Their unforgettable stories have been compiled and edited by Jean Webber, whose insightful commentary combines broad historical perspective and intimate detail. Interesting, accurate and accessible, with lots of archival photographs, A Rich and Fruitful Land is a must-read for Okanagan locals, first-time visitors and BC history buffs alike.
Founded in September 1925, the Okanagan Historical Society has participated in numerous projects which commemorate the colourful history of the area, including the recording of significant events and the experiences of pioneers in its Okanagan History: The Annual Reports of the Okanagan Historical Society.
The heart of the book is a selection of articles, essays, letters, diaries, memoirs and observations that first appeared in Okanagan History, a journal published by the Okanagan Historical Society for more than seventy years. Among them are Marie Houghton Brent, granddaughter of the great Chief N'Kwala, who sought to keep the history of the Okanagan Nation alive through her storytelling; Father Pat, the rugged missionary who sometimes had to rely on his own two fists for survival when dealing with rowdy locals in mining camps; and Benjamin Franklin Young, a US Civil War veteran who became one of the first Okanagan settlers to drive stagecoaches.
Their unforgettable stories have been compiled and edited by Jean Webber, whose insightful commentary combines broad historical perspective and intimate detail. Interesting, accurate and accessible, with lots of archival photographs, A Rich and Fruitful Land is a must-read for Okanagan locals, first-time visitors and BC history buffs alike.
Founded in September 1925, the Okanagan Historical Society has participated in numerous projects which commemorate the colourful history of the area, including the recording of significant events and the experiences of pioneers in its Okanagan History: The Annual Reports of the Okanagan Historical Society.
About the Author
Jean Webber edited the journal Okanagan History: The Annual Reports of the Okanagan Historical Society for six years and has also contributed articles to British Columbia Historical News. She is the author and/or editor of several books including Venture: The Story of the Okanagan Summer School of the Arts, Okanagan Sources and most recently, Harbour Publishing's A Rich and Fruitful Land. She now lives in Victoria.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Hard-Rock Mining
Fairview
Thirty years after the gold rushes of the 1860s British Columbia was again in the throes of gold fever. However, this time the precious metal was to be won by lode mining rather than placer mining. Between 1885 and 1900 the Camp Hewitt Mining and Development Company along with others was searching for gold deposits in the area between Trepanier and Deep Creeks (between modern Peachland and Westbank). In 1893 J.M. Robinson of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba responded to the publicity the area was being given. Being already in Rossland, looking for gold properties, he decided to ride by horseback from Rossland to what is now Peachland, where he acquired ownership of several claims. However, the Kathleen Mine established by Robinson and his associates was disappointing and the Manitoban decided that the subdivision of land into orchard properties offered a more secure investment.
In the South Okanagan mining prospects proved much more profitable, In her article "Further Fairview Osoyoos Chronicles" Katie Lacey quotes from the first edition of a paper which started publication August 27, 1892 in Oro (now Oroville), Washington:
"Another promising camp in the Okanagan country is Fairview Camp, in British Columbia, eighteen miles north of Oro, close to the Okanagan River. Gold was discovered there first about four years ago but little was done towards development.
The first mine to bring the Camp into prominence was the Rattler, discovered by Hank Mankin, and for a long time the only means of support he had was to take the quartz and grind it to pulp between two large stones, and then wash the gold out in a pan."
Was Mankin using the horse-powered arrastre to mill his ore? The paper goes on to state that some Spokane investors put in a stamp mill but a dispute among the partners put an end to the operation. Fortunately some English capitalists arrived from London looking for likely mining property and bought the Rattler, and were examining other properties. The paper says of them:
"They left London May 4th, and have been all through the Slocan and Kootenai districts before coming here and are very favorably impressed with this country.
They have unlimited means at their command for legitimate mining investments and intend to make further purchases."
Lode mining was expensive. Machinery had to be purchased-stamp mills, compressors, pipes, flumes, concentrators, etc. Wages had to be paid and the product, whether in the form of gold bars or concentrate, had to be transported. Capital was essential and in the South Okanagan this came from either the United States or from England. Until train and boat service were established through the Okanagan in 1892 all equipment and supplies had to be brought in from south of the boundary.
Other claims that had been recorded by the summer of 1892 included the Wide West, Brown Bear, Silver Crown, Joe Dandy, Wynn M., Ontario, and Stem Winder. Later claims that developed into mines were: Morning Star, Evening Star, August, Tin Horn, Smuggler, Black Diamond, and Wild Horse. In some mines, silver as well as gold was recovered.
Soon a thriving town grew up on the bench high above the valley floor, about three miles west of the present town of Oliver. Estimates of its population vary. Some think that at its peak three thousand people lived there and that Fairview was, for a time, the largest settlement in the Interior of British Columbia. As transportation improved, access became easier. Dorothy Amor tells us that her father, Arthur D. Hardie, in November 1902 brought her mother as a bride to Fairview. Having come down Okanagan Lake to Penticton on a sternwheeler, they travelled in an open freight wagon south to Fairview, a trip of twelve hours?
Two of the valley's pioneer doctors, Dr. B.de F. Boyce and Dr. R.B. White, founded their first practices at Fairview having been encouraged to settle there by mining companies. Because this was where the action was, in 1898 the government agent C.A.R. Lambly was instructed to move his government office from Osoyoos to Fairview. One. can imagine the throbbing life of the town which had sprung up so suddenly-the hotels, the bars, the livery stables, stores, offices, a school, churches. Rev. William Irwin, known to the miners as Father Pat, had his Anglican congregation. But the town was not without its tragedies. The grandest hotel, known as the Big Teepee, burned to the ground with the loss of at least one life. A diphtheria outbreak took the lives of the children of another family.
But veins of ore run out and miners turn to better prospects. By 1910 Fairview was a ghost town.
Today only one house from the great mining era remains and the passerby would not recognize the townsite were it not for the two lots which once belonged to the Presbyterian Church and are now the property of the Okanagan Historical Society. The church building was moved to Okanagan Falls, where it serves the United Church congregation. Its dismantling before its removal from Fairview bears testimony to the skilled use of explosives developed by mining men. A charge of dynamite was hung from the ceiling of the church. When the dynamite was exploded the walls were blown out momentarily and then returned to their original position but with all the nails loosened. The boards could then be removed without damaging them.
The Great Gold Robbery
While some prospectors were staking claims in the mountains to the west of Fairview others were searching for promising properties in the mountains across the Okanagan Valley. The Victoria claim was located in 1884 by A. Goericke, possibly acting for J.C. Haynes. But it was not until 1887 when A McKinney and his associates, Rice, Burnam and Le Fevre, staked the Cariboo Amelia that any great interest was shown in the area. Robert Iverson in his booklet Camp McKinney tells us:
"The rich ore exposed on the Cariboo Amelia claims over a distance of some seventy feet with a width of some forty to fifty inches brought about another gold rush of sorts . . . Mickey Monahan and a group from Spokane, hearing of the rich strike were soon on the scene. Organized as a private company, they bought out Al McKinney and his associates. The Cariboo Amelia first organized as Cariboo Mining and Milling in 1888 and it was shortly after to become a public company known as Cariboo Mining, Milling and Smelting. Capitalization was at 800,000 shares with a par value of one dollar."
When Camp McKinney first came into being the only access to it was through Sidley. However, in 1893 the Government of British Columbia undertook to build a road from Okanagan Falls up past McCuddy and through Camp McKinney to Midway and on to Grand Forks. This was the only Canadian route from the Okanagan into the Boundary Country until 1911 when a road was built up Anarchist Mountain east of Osoyoos.
The camp, with a population of about 250 at its height, had six hotels, stores and other businesses, but no bank. The nearest bank in British Columbia was at Vernon. The Cariboo was Camp McKinney's major mine. When it ran out of high-grade ore it closed down in 1903 and Camp McKinney with it. However, the company had the distinction of being the first mining company in British Columbia to pay dividends which, by 1900, had amounted to $459,000.
For most people looking back to the turn of the century Camp McKinney's most exciting event was the great gold robbery. We are fortunate in having an account of the event from a man who was a storekeeper in the camp at the time.
The Gold Brick Robbery at Camp McKinney by Arthur K. W. Cosens
The Cariboo Mine at Camp McKinney of which Robert Jaffray was president, George B. McAulay, managing director, and Joseph P. Keane, superintendent, was a paying proposition from the grass roots down. James Monahan of Spokane was also a director of the Company and very instrumental in getting it under way after purchasing the property from the first owners, McKinney and Rice.
Monahan brought in the first unit of the stamp mill from the State of Washington, hauling it in with teams, and passing the customs at Osoyoos . . . In the year 1896 the Camp was running very smoothly. The stamp mill was pounding away incessantly day and night with only a cessation of the noise from the falling stamps for a short time twice a month during the time the "clean up" was in progress. After the amalgam had been retorted, the quicksilver being retained, the gold bricks of an approximate value of $30,000 per month were ready for shipment to the mint at San Francisco by express from the nearest railway which was at Marcus at one time, and later at Midway, after the advent of the railway to that point.
A certain amount of caution was usually taken when the bricks left Camp. Sometimes I have known them thrown into the jockey box of one of the wagons hauling concentrates or tailing to the railhead for shipment to the smelter at Tacoma. In this case the wagon would be met at its destination by one of the officials or trusted employees of the Company, the brick extracted and shipped, sometimes without the driver of the wagon knowing that he had been its custodian at all.
At other times it would be hidden in a sack of concentrates and the same procedure followed.
Then again it would be taken by the Superintendent on horseback, or driving a buckboard and followed by an armed employee a hundred yards or so behind.
The morning of the robbery, in August 1896, Geo. B. McAulay, who had been spending a few days in Camp and was returning to Spokane, left Camp at 7 a.m., driving a buckboard and had the proceeds of the last clean-up with him, some $14,000 in the form of three bricks, the value of the smallest brick being $1,600. About two miles from Camp on the road to Rock Creek he was ordered by a masked man who stepped from the woods with levelled rifle to throw out the bullion and "keep going." McAulay obeyed until he reached the ranch of C.W. Hozier some eight or ten ...
Fairview
Thirty years after the gold rushes of the 1860s British Columbia was again in the throes of gold fever. However, this time the precious metal was to be won by lode mining rather than placer mining. Between 1885 and 1900 the Camp Hewitt Mining and Development Company along with others was searching for gold deposits in the area between Trepanier and Deep Creeks (between modern Peachland and Westbank). In 1893 J.M. Robinson of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba responded to the publicity the area was being given. Being already in Rossland, looking for gold properties, he decided to ride by horseback from Rossland to what is now Peachland, where he acquired ownership of several claims. However, the Kathleen Mine established by Robinson and his associates was disappointing and the Manitoban decided that the subdivision of land into orchard properties offered a more secure investment.
In the South Okanagan mining prospects proved much more profitable, In her article "Further Fairview Osoyoos Chronicles" Katie Lacey quotes from the first edition of a paper which started publication August 27, 1892 in Oro (now Oroville), Washington:
"Another promising camp in the Okanagan country is Fairview Camp, in British Columbia, eighteen miles north of Oro, close to the Okanagan River. Gold was discovered there first about four years ago but little was done towards development.
The first mine to bring the Camp into prominence was the Rattler, discovered by Hank Mankin, and for a long time the only means of support he had was to take the quartz and grind it to pulp between two large stones, and then wash the gold out in a pan."
Was Mankin using the horse-powered arrastre to mill his ore? The paper goes on to state that some Spokane investors put in a stamp mill but a dispute among the partners put an end to the operation. Fortunately some English capitalists arrived from London looking for likely mining property and bought the Rattler, and were examining other properties. The paper says of them:
"They left London May 4th, and have been all through the Slocan and Kootenai districts before coming here and are very favorably impressed with this country.
They have unlimited means at their command for legitimate mining investments and intend to make further purchases."
Lode mining was expensive. Machinery had to be purchased-stamp mills, compressors, pipes, flumes, concentrators, etc. Wages had to be paid and the product, whether in the form of gold bars or concentrate, had to be transported. Capital was essential and in the South Okanagan this came from either the United States or from England. Until train and boat service were established through the Okanagan in 1892 all equipment and supplies had to be brought in from south of the boundary.
Other claims that had been recorded by the summer of 1892 included the Wide West, Brown Bear, Silver Crown, Joe Dandy, Wynn M., Ontario, and Stem Winder. Later claims that developed into mines were: Morning Star, Evening Star, August, Tin Horn, Smuggler, Black Diamond, and Wild Horse. In some mines, silver as well as gold was recovered.
Soon a thriving town grew up on the bench high above the valley floor, about three miles west of the present town of Oliver. Estimates of its population vary. Some think that at its peak three thousand people lived there and that Fairview was, for a time, the largest settlement in the Interior of British Columbia. As transportation improved, access became easier. Dorothy Amor tells us that her father, Arthur D. Hardie, in November 1902 brought her mother as a bride to Fairview. Having come down Okanagan Lake to Penticton on a sternwheeler, they travelled in an open freight wagon south to Fairview, a trip of twelve hours?
Two of the valley's pioneer doctors, Dr. B.de F. Boyce and Dr. R.B. White, founded their first practices at Fairview having been encouraged to settle there by mining companies. Because this was where the action was, in 1898 the government agent C.A.R. Lambly was instructed to move his government office from Osoyoos to Fairview. One. can imagine the throbbing life of the town which had sprung up so suddenly-the hotels, the bars, the livery stables, stores, offices, a school, churches. Rev. William Irwin, known to the miners as Father Pat, had his Anglican congregation. But the town was not without its tragedies. The grandest hotel, known as the Big Teepee, burned to the ground with the loss of at least one life. A diphtheria outbreak took the lives of the children of another family.
But veins of ore run out and miners turn to better prospects. By 1910 Fairview was a ghost town.
Today only one house from the great mining era remains and the passerby would not recognize the townsite were it not for the two lots which once belonged to the Presbyterian Church and are now the property of the Okanagan Historical Society. The church building was moved to Okanagan Falls, where it serves the United Church congregation. Its dismantling before its removal from Fairview bears testimony to the skilled use of explosives developed by mining men. A charge of dynamite was hung from the ceiling of the church. When the dynamite was exploded the walls were blown out momentarily and then returned to their original position but with all the nails loosened. The boards could then be removed without damaging them.
The Great Gold Robbery
While some prospectors were staking claims in the mountains to the west of Fairview others were searching for promising properties in the mountains across the Okanagan Valley. The Victoria claim was located in 1884 by A. Goericke, possibly acting for J.C. Haynes. But it was not until 1887 when A McKinney and his associates, Rice, Burnam and Le Fevre, staked the Cariboo Amelia that any great interest was shown in the area. Robert Iverson in his booklet Camp McKinney tells us:
"The rich ore exposed on the Cariboo Amelia claims over a distance of some seventy feet with a width of some forty to fifty inches brought about another gold rush of sorts . . . Mickey Monahan and a group from Spokane, hearing of the rich strike were soon on the scene. Organized as a private company, they bought out Al McKinney and his associates. The Cariboo Amelia first organized as Cariboo Mining and Milling in 1888 and it was shortly after to become a public company known as Cariboo Mining, Milling and Smelting. Capitalization was at 800,000 shares with a par value of one dollar."
When Camp McKinney first came into being the only access to it was through Sidley. However, in 1893 the Government of British Columbia undertook to build a road from Okanagan Falls up past McCuddy and through Camp McKinney to Midway and on to Grand Forks. This was the only Canadian route from the Okanagan into the Boundary Country until 1911 when a road was built up Anarchist Mountain east of Osoyoos.
The camp, with a population of about 250 at its height, had six hotels, stores and other businesses, but no bank. The nearest bank in British Columbia was at Vernon. The Cariboo was Camp McKinney's major mine. When it ran out of high-grade ore it closed down in 1903 and Camp McKinney with it. However, the company had the distinction of being the first mining company in British Columbia to pay dividends which, by 1900, had amounted to $459,000.
For most people looking back to the turn of the century Camp McKinney's most exciting event was the great gold robbery. We are fortunate in having an account of the event from a man who was a storekeeper in the camp at the time.
The Gold Brick Robbery at Camp McKinney by Arthur K. W. Cosens
The Cariboo Mine at Camp McKinney of which Robert Jaffray was president, George B. McAulay, managing director, and Joseph P. Keane, superintendent, was a paying proposition from the grass roots down. James Monahan of Spokane was also a director of the Company and very instrumental in getting it under way after purchasing the property from the first owners, McKinney and Rice.
Monahan brought in the first unit of the stamp mill from the State of Washington, hauling it in with teams, and passing the customs at Osoyoos . . . In the year 1896 the Camp was running very smoothly. The stamp mill was pounding away incessantly day and night with only a cessation of the noise from the falling stamps for a short time twice a month during the time the "clean up" was in progress. After the amalgam had been retorted, the quicksilver being retained, the gold bricks of an approximate value of $30,000 per month were ready for shipment to the mint at San Francisco by express from the nearest railway which was at Marcus at one time, and later at Midway, after the advent of the railway to that point.
A certain amount of caution was usually taken when the bricks left Camp. Sometimes I have known them thrown into the jockey box of one of the wagons hauling concentrates or tailing to the railhead for shipment to the smelter at Tacoma. In this case the wagon would be met at its destination by one of the officials or trusted employees of the Company, the brick extracted and shipped, sometimes without the driver of the wagon knowing that he had been its custodian at all.
At other times it would be hidden in a sack of concentrates and the same procedure followed.
Then again it would be taken by the Superintendent on horseback, or driving a buckboard and followed by an armed employee a hundred yards or so behind.
The morning of the robbery, in August 1896, Geo. B. McAulay, who had been spending a few days in Camp and was returning to Spokane, left Camp at 7 a.m., driving a buckboard and had the proceeds of the last clean-up with him, some $14,000 in the form of three bricks, the value of the smallest brick being $1,600. About two miles from Camp on the road to Rock Creek he was ordered by a masked man who stepped from the woods with levelled rifle to throw out the bullion and "keep going." McAulay obeyed until he reached the ranch of C.W. Hozier some eight or ten ...
