The
Okanagan Valley
Roughly 200kms (125 miles long) and 20 km (12 miles wide),
Okanagan Valley lies between the Columbia and Cascade
Mountain range in south-central British Columbia. Its
landscape of low hills and oblong lakes was formed by
glacial activity of gravel, silt and sand on the bottom
and sides of the valley. These sediments were eroded by
water and wind, resulting in large alluvial fans and
deltas such as those on which Vernon, Kelowna and
Penticton partly stand.
Along the valley floor are the watery remnants of a
large glacial lake, the largest of which is Okanagan Lake.
The whole system drains south through the Okanagan River
into the Columbia River.
The Valley lies in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains
creating a hot, sunny, dry climate.
Okanagan valley is noted for its dairy products and
vegetable growing region, its extensive vineyards and
fruit growing areas (apricots, apple, cherries, peaches,
pears and plums).
Kelowna
The Kelowna area was a centre for the local interior Salish
First Nations people for hundreds of years. Then came the
fur traders. There was a fur trading route which went down
the Okanagan Valley from Kamloops to the Columbia River in
Washington in the first half of the 1800's. The fur traders told
white settlers that there was good farming land in the
Okanagan Valley and this encouraged an oblate priest called
Father Pandosy to move here. In 1859 Father Pandosy arrived,
and after a terrible first winter, set up his Mission on the
Mission Creek delta on which Kelowna now stands.
August Gilliard, one of the earlier white settlers, lived in a hovel
on the side of a bank. It had a mud roof, a dirt floor and no
windows. One day he heard some noises from Indians outside,
so he climbed out. His great size, untidy appearance and long
red whiskers surprised the Indians so they called him, jokingly,
"Kim-ah-touch" meaning "brown bear". Due to the difficulty
in pronunciation, it was later changed to Kelowna, meaning
Grizzly Bear.
Soon settlers came to farm, growing hay, wheat and tobacco.
In the 1890's orchards started to flourish with the help of
irrigation ditches. Kelowna grew as an agricultural centre
until the 1960's. From the 1960's to the present, Kelowna
has undergone tremendous growth as a retirement
centre, light manufacturing hub and a tourist destination.
Okanagan
Lake
Okanagan Lake occupies a trough-like valley extending 69
miles in length and having an average width of 2 miles.
The depth of the water varies from 34 feet to 760 feet.
The valley walls rise 3,000 feet above the lake. The three
major communities situated on the lake are: at the south end
the city of Penticton, at the north end the city of Vernon
and in the middle the city of Kelowna.
Okanagan Wine
The Okanagan region is the largest and oldest wine producing
area of B.C. There are over 50 wineries with a total of
over 4,000 acres of premium grape varieties. Warm, long
summer days and cool nights combined with gravelly soil make
it ideal for grape growing. It has been said that "to make
a truly fine wine, the vine must suffer". Due to the gravelly
soil, the roots are forced to go deeper for water and this
results in better flavour.
The south end of the valley gets less than 6 inches (15cm)
of rain each year making it the only area of Canada to be
classified as a desert, while the north end of the valley
receives less then 16 inches of rain. Classic red vinifera
grapes are widely planted in the south while Germanic white
grape varieties favour the northern climate. The Okanagan
Valley is on the same latitude as Northern France and the
Rhineland of Germany, some of the best wine growing areas
of Europe.
In 1932, W.A.C. Bennet (former premier of the province),
who lived in Kelowna, and his friend "Cap" Capozzi formed
a company called Domestic Wine Products. This later became
Calona Wines. In the 1960's commercial wineries started
to increase in number, though the wines still did not
have international recognition.
The 1988 free trade agreement between Canada and the
United States saw the implementation of a major vine
pull out program. The replanting of vineyards with
premium "vinifera" vines combined with the hiring of
excellent winemakers has enabled the B.C. wine
industry to compete on the world market. Today, more
orchard land is being transferred over to vines. The
wine has improved so much in recent years that many
international awards have been won.