in 1986. The Okanagan Valley is home to the
Syilx, commonly known as the Okanagan people, an
Interior Salish people who live in the valley from the head of
Okanagan Lake downstream to near the river's confluence with the
Columbia River in present-day
Washington, as well as in the neighbouring
Similkameen Valley and the
Upper Nicola to the north of that, though the whole of their traditional territory encompasses the entire Columbia River watershed and includes areas east of the
Okanogan River in Washington, i.e. the
Colville Reservation. At the height of Okanagan culture, about 3000 years ago, it is estimated that 12,000 people lived in this valley and surrounding areas. The Okanagan people employed an adaptive strategy, moving within traditional areas throughout the year to fish, hunt, or collect food, while in the winter months, they lived in semi-permanent
villages of
kekulis, a type of pithouse. Today the member bands of the
Okanagan Nation Alliance are sovereign nations, with vibrant natural resource and tourism based economies. Their annual August gathering near Vernon is a celebration of the continuance of Syilx life and culture. In 1811, the first non-natives came to the Okanagan Valley, in the form of a
fur trading expedition voyaging north out of
Fort Okanogan, a
Pacific Fur Company outpost at the confluence of the Okanogan and Columbia Rivers. Within fifteen years, fur traders established, known as the
Brigade Trail via the Cariboo Plateau and
Thompson Country to
Fort Kamloops and through the Okanagan, from
Fort Alexandria at the southern end of the
New Caledonia fur district in the Central Interior to the north, to
Fort Vancouver, the HBC's headquarters in the
Columbia Department, for passing furs between New Caledonia and the Columbia River for shipment to the Pacific. The trade route lasted until 1846, when the
Oregon Treaty laid down the border between
British North America and the
United States west of the
Rocky Mountains on the 49th parallel. The new border cut across the valley, bisecting Osoyoos Lake. To avoid paying
tariffs, British traders forged a newer route that bypassed Fort Okanogan via the
Fraser Canyon from
Spuzzum up over the
Cascade Mountains, then via the Nicola, Coldwater and
Fraser rivers to
Fort Langley instead of to Fort Vancouver, which had come into being in American territory. The Okanagan Valley did not see many more outsiders for a decade afterward. In 1859, the first European settlement was established when Father
Charles Pandosy led the making of an
Oblate mission at
Okanagan Mission, now a neighbourhood of Kelowna. The
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858 eventually encouraged more settlement as some prospectors from the United States took the
Okanagan Trail route on their way to the
Fraser Canyon, although at the height of the rush the American adventurers who used the route did not settle because of outright hostilities from the
Syilx, whom a few of the parties traversing the trail had harassed and brutalized. A few staked claims around the South Okanagan and Similkameen valleys and found
gold and
copper in places, with another trail from
Fort Hope to newer goldfields at
Rock Creek and
Wild Horse Creek in the East Kootenay, skirting the US border and crossing Osoyoos Lake at Osoyoos, a customs post and also the location of the
gold commissioner's office. The
Dewdney Trail, surveyed and built by
Edgar Dewdney, was constructed to prevent trade in the region from going north-south instead of remaining firmly under British control, and also for military mobility purposes should the need arise. In the decades after the gold rushes, ranchers, mostly on military land grants, settled on Okanagan Lake; notable ones included the
Coldstream Ranch near Vernon, the
Ellis Ranch, which formed the basis of the City of Penticton once subdivided, and the
Richter Ranch, which continues in operation today, in the mountains between the Town of Oliver and the Village of Keremeos in the Similkameen. A
mining industry began in the southern Okanagan region, with
Fairview, now an empty benchland on the western side of
Oliver, the best-known and largest of the boomtowns created in the later part of the 19th century. More farmers, as well as a small service industry, came to meet the miners' needs. Fruit production is a hallmark of the Okanagan Valley today, but the industry began with difficulty. Commercial orcharding of
apples was first tried there in 1892, but a series of setbacks prevented the major success of commercial fruit crops until the 1920s. In 1936, the grower-owned
BC Tree Fruits Cooperative was established to store, package, and sell Okanagan fruit. Until the 1930s, the demand for shipping fruit and other goods drove a need for ongoing operations of the sternwheeler
steamboats that
serviced Okanagan Lake, operated by a subsidiary of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, linking the
Southern Mainline with the original transcontinental mainline at Sicamous: the
SS Aberdeen from 1886, the
SS Sicamous and
SS Naramata from 1914, and others. The
Sicamous and
Naramata survive as a tourist attraction on Okanagan Beach on the north side of
Penticton, the
Sicamous serving both as a museum and also an event facility. Other steamboats operated on
Skaha Lake to the south of that city. The club lounge and wheelhouse, without any keel or hull, of the SS
Okanagan are in the same park as the
Sicamous and
Naramata. While the last half-century has grown several resource-based enterprises in the region, primarily forestry, mining played an important role in earlier times. Favoured by its sunny climate, lakes, and
winery attractions, the valley has become a popular destination for vacationers and retirees. The area also attracts seasonal fruit-picking labourers, primarily from
Quebec and
Mexico. == Demographics ==