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History of Penticton


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Penticton, from the Interior Salish word snpintktn, is commonly translated as "a place to stay forever," or more accurately, "a place where people live year-round." For over 7,000 years, Penticton has been home to the Syilx First Peoples, who were instrumental in helping the first European fur traders travel through the Okanagan in the early 1800s.

A young Irish immigrant named Thomas Ellis took the meaning of snpintktn to heart and in 1865 became the first European to settle in Penticton. Through ranching cattle, Ellis acquired territory that stretched from Naramata all the way south to the American border. When he retired in 1892, Ellis sold off a large portion of his property to developers who laid out a small town site at the foot of Okanagan Lake. Penticton had been born.

Development in the early years was slow and things only began to really pick up in 1905, when the South Okanagan Land Company subdivided another large section of the Ellis holdings. The original town site, which lay mostly to the east of Penticton Creek, was linked up to the new one by Smith Street (later renamed Front Street), which was the heart of the small town in its earliest days. By 1908, with a population of six hundred, Penticton was incorporated and growth gradually accelerated.

As the rugged terrain made land transport difficult, early population movement in and out of Penticton was primarily by water on Okanagan Lake, which runs from Vernon in the north to its southern tip at Penticton. Much of this travel was aboard steamships like the S.S. Sicamous. Although not the first, the Sicamous was the largest and most famous sternwheeler to grace Okanagan Lake. Known as the "Queen of the Lake," she was built in Port Harbour, Ontario and assembled at Okanagan Landing for her maiden voyage on 1 July 1914. Many local servicemen heading for the First World War began their journey aboard the Sicamous. With her passenger service discontinued in 1935, the Sicamous worked
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