A Brief History of Penticton
The city of Penticton has a rich history that is steeped in First Nation culture as well as roots tied to cattle ranching, the fur trade and the Kettle Valley Railway. This unique combination provides a rich narrative and gives Penticton an interesting historical story.
Geography and Climate
Penticton is part of the Okanagan, located in the interior of the province of British Columbia and is roughly 5 hours from the province’s largest city, Vancouver. The town site covers just over 42 square kilometres at an elevation of 385 metres above sea level.
Penticton boasts a semi-arid climate with hot summers, little precipitation and moderate winters. It has the lowest amount of fog in British Columbia and has the second
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most days over 30 degrees Celsius. The city enjoys almost 2 000 hours of sunshine annually and is surrounded by lakes. The Origin of the Name Like many cities and towns in the Okanagan, Penticton is derived from the Okanagan language. Penticton can be translated into “a place to stay forever”. One visit to the city and its surrounding area and it is not too hard to imagine how Penticton got its name. The Early Years The city site was first settled by Okanagan people of the Interior Salish language group.
These first inhabitants were instrumental in helping European fur-traders travel and navigate the area.
In 1866, Thomas Ellis, a young Irish immigrant became the first European to settle in the area, taking the true meaning of Penticton to heart. Ellis became one of British Columbia’s most successful cattle ranchers. Large sections of Ellis’ ranch were later subdivided and from this, the original town site of Penticton was born.
By 1908, Penticton had a population of 600 and began to grow at a very fast pace. The original fruit trees that had been planted by Thomas Ellis had matured and quickly became key economic revenue.
Due to the rugged terrain and lack of options, transportation in and out of Penticton was primarily by water. Much of the travel was done by steamships such as the S.S. Sicamous. The S.S. Sicamous was the largest and most famous of the paddle wheelers that provided passenger service for Penticton. The steamship service lasted from the early 1900’s until the 1940’s. In 1949, the city of Penticton bought the S.S. Sicamous from the Canadian Pacific Railway to preserve this important part of the city’s
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history. The Kettle Valley Railway In 1910, it was announced that Penticton was to serve as the headquarters for the new Kettle Valley Railway.
One of the main reasons why Penticton was chosen was that it was connected to a lake. This meant that the railway company was able to launch boats and tugs to compliment rail service.
The purpose of the rail line was to connect the coast with the Kootenays, bringing more economic prosperity to the province. The Kettle Valley Railway definitely secured Penticton’s economic prosperity and brought the city many jobs and a new population.
The Kettle Valley Railway provided Penticton with a fast and efficient transportation portal for the orchards and fruit of the town, further linking the economic importance of the orchards to Penticton. The Kettle Valley Railway also brought tourism to Penticton allowing the city to grow into a tourist hub for the province.
Post Second World War
This era is viewed as Penticton’s golden age of prosperity and growth. In 1948, with a huge influx of returning veterans, Penticton was incorporated into a city. The 1950’s and 60’s saw many new infrastructure projects such as the channelization of the Okanagan River. During this time, Penticton also enjoyed a construction boom which brought a new city hall, a new community arts building as well as Penticton’s first major shopping
centre. In 2010, Penticton celebrated its centennial. The city continues to evolve and change with many of the original neighbourhoods being revitalized to capture the charm and essence of small town Penticton. New event centres as well as a renaissance of downtown Penticton were part of the centennial. One of the newest additions to Penticton is the wine industry which is quickly transforming Penticton and its surrounding areas into a top destination for wine tourism. Even with the new growth and new economic opportunities, Penticton remains true to its historical roots. It remains that perfect blend of beautiful weather and stunning scenery It truly lives up to its namesake – “a place to stay forever.” I live in Penticton and enjoy a wide range of activities. I enjoy being a part of this welcoming community have consistently been one of the top real estate agents in the South Okanagan for the past 10 years. If you are interested in moving here or would like to see some of the new, exciting listings in Penticton or the surrounding area, please call me today.
...s well as an export station. Railroads helped connect the West and make it less lonely than first impression would show.
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There is one reason Chicago is as big as it is today and that is the fact that it is the largest rail city in the world. The railroad made Chicago what it is today, and although the canal was very important in the history of Chicago the railroads importance out weighs it by far. The canal was important because it was the vision of the first settlers of Chicago to have an all water trade route that would go through Chicago. What those first explorers saw was a way to make a canal so that they could transport goods from the St Lawrence River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico with less cost and with more efficiency. The canal was the reason Chicago was settled in the first place if not for it there might very well not be a city called Chicago. You could argue that the canal was the most important thing in Chicago's history but I think the railroads were much more important. The railroads enabled Chicago to become one of the biggest cities in the world by bringing in different business and all types of goods. Chicago is a very key location to have a railroad-shipping hub. This is because it is centrally located in the United States so goods can be shipped in almost any direction and received in a shorter amount of time. William Butler Ogden was the one who pushed for Chicago to adopt a large rail system and he should be known as the one who made this city boom. St. Louis or another centrally located city could have very well adopted the rail system and they would have reaped all the benefits.
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In Pigeon Forge you have nice hot summers and cold snowy winters. It also rains allot, which is nice since I enjoy rainy weather. During the winters, the mountains surrounding Pigeon Forge are capped with snow and in the spring the snow melts and creates beautiful streams which run down the mountain into rivers. These are some of the most beautiful attractions in Pigeon Forge and one of my favorite things to go see when we vacation there. " Every season in Pigeon Forge is a beautiful work of art that only a perfect God could create."
Transportation improved from the market revolution through many new inventions, railroads, steamboats, and canals. Pressure for improvements in transportation came at least as much from cities eager to buy as from farmers seeking to sell. The first railroad built was in 1792, it started a spread throughout the states. Cumberland which began to be built in 1811 and finished in 1852, known to be called the national road stretched over five hundred miles from Cumberland to Illinois. By 1821, there were four thousand miles of turnpike in the United States. Turnpikes were not economical to ship bulky goods by land across long distance across America, so another invention came about. Robert Fulton created steam boats in 1807; he named his first one ‘Clermont.’ These steam boats allowed quick travel upriver against the currents, they were also faster and cheaper. The steamboats became a huge innovation with the time travel of five miles per hour. It also stimulated agricultural economy of west by providing better access to markets at lower cost. While steamboats were conquering the western rivers, canals were being constructed in the northeastern states. The firs...
From mid 1840s into the nineteenth century the Pacific Northwest transformed from small towns to urban cities, traveling by foot to building railroads, and establishing statehood. The urban growth grew tremendously from 1880s to 1920s. Immigrants coming for all over Europe and Asia, the Pacific Northwest changed from pioneers to an urban society.
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The development of canal, steam boats and railroads provided a transportation network that linked different regions of the nation together. When farmers began migrating westward and acquiring land for crops, cheaper forms of transportation provided the means to transfer their goods to other regions for s...
Carbon emissions from the steamboats polluted the air (Roark, 261). The building of roads was a major connecting point for states. There were some arguments about who would pay for these new roads.... ... middle of paper ... ...
... line the canal today. The development of the railroad in the 19th century and the automobile in the 20th century sealed the fate of the Erie Canal.
This article focuses mainly on the emergence of the first people in America: Who they are, where they came from and how they got to America. He discussed three main routes as to how they arrived in America, none of which were without criticism. In trying to determine who the first people in America are, Hadingham began with the Clovis points and their creators, the Clovis people, who lived about 12,500 to 13,500 years ago, and tried to trace their origin. According to the article, a Gault site was first investigated in 1929 and the Clovis people who inhabited the Gault seem to have stayed there for long periods. Also from this site, the Clovis people seem to have preyed on mammoths, deer, turkeys, horses, frogs, birds, turtles and other small animals.
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of about -9° C (about 16° F) and an average July temperature of about 22° C