Interactive timeline · 7,000 BCE to 2026
Syilx homeland, Orchard City, wildfire country: Okanagan history in 31 moments.
31 moments5 eras44 sourcesAbout ↓
7,000 BCE – 1810
After the glaciers retreat, the Syilx Okanagan people build a self-reliant economy of hunting, fishing, gathering and trade around Okanagan Lake.
Glaciers that shaped the Okanagan Valley finally retreated between about 11,000 and 9,000 years ago, leaving the lakes and terraces of today. The Syilx Okanagan people, including the Sinixt, have lived here for thousands of years, travelling their territory to hunt, fish, grow, gather and trade in a self-reliant economy. Their language is nsyilxcən.
💡 Fun fact
Did you know? The name Kelowna comes from the Okanagan (nsyilxcən) word for grizzly bear.
Long before settlers spoke of "Ogopogo," the Salish peoples of the valley described a "snake in the lake," and representations of it appear in pre-contact petroglyphs. The English name came later from a British music-hall song.
1811 – 1891
Fur traders pass through, a border splits Syilx territory, and Oblate missionaries plant the first orchards.
David Stuart, a Scottish trader with the Pacific Fur Company, is credited as the first European to see the Okanagan Valley, in 1811. His cousin John Stuart of the Hudson's Bay Company followed in 1814, and fur brigades used the trail through the valley until 1847, followed later by miners.
In 1846 the Oregon Treaty drew the Canada–United States border along the 49th parallel across Syilx Okanagan territory, without the Nation's consent. Families and lands were separated; some Syilx and Sinixt people stayed in what became British Columbia, while others settled on the Colville reservation in Washington State. Kinship ties across the border continue today.
⚖️ Established fact
Established factBritain and the United States set the boundary through Syilx territory in 1846 without consulting or obtaining the consent of the Syilx Okanagan Nation.
Oblate missionaries Father Charles Pandosy, Father Richard and Brother Surel arrived in October 1859 and built a mission at a spot they called L'Anse au Sable, near present-day Kelowna. They planted the valley's first fruit trees a few years later. The name Okanagan Mission came to describe the whole surrounding district, and the mission is now a provincial historic site.
By 1861 the Hudson's Bay Company had a small trading post in the area, and a grain mill was built in 1871. Ranching was the first settler industry to succeed in the valley.
Parliament passed the Indian Act in 1876, which Westbank First Nation describes as designed to forcibly dismantle Indigenous governments and social structures. Syilx communities had been self-governing, following a 13-moon seasonal round with each new moon marking a new resource; Charlie Sookinchute was the first recorded chief at Westbank, and a statue of him stands by the Kelowna Tourism Centre on Okanagan Lake.
⚖️ Established fact
Established factThe Indian Act replaced traditional Syilx governance with band structures controlled by Ottawa, as documented in the historical record.
1892 – 1945
A townsite is laid out, steamboats and railways carry fruit to market, and reserves are imposed without treaty.
The townsite was surveyed in 1892 and named with an Okanagan word for grizzly bear. Local accounts tie the name to settler August Gillard, who lived in a pit house; passing Okanagan people seeing the hairy, bearded man emerge called out a word recorded as "Kim-ach-Touch," or brown bear.
From the 1890s steamboats, including Canadian Pacific Railway vessels, carried goods and people between the communities along Okanagan Lake, Kelowna among them. The CPR sternwheeler SS Sicamous is preserved as a museum on the Penticton waterfront.
As settlement spread and British Columbia joined Confederation, the province came under pressure to designate reserves so settlers could own the land they occupied. Joint federal and provincial commissions created one reserve at Mission Creek and two on the west side of Okanagan Lake in the central Okanagan, and later commissions reduced them in size; Syilx reserves were finally set in the early 1900s. The Syilx opposed reserves being imposed without first negotiating a treaty, and no treaty has been signed.
⚖️ Established fact
Established factFederal and provincial reserve commissions set and later shrank Syilx reserves without a treaty or the Nation's agreement; Westbank First Nation settled a specific claim for lands removed from its reserves in 1982, and the Syilx Okanagan Nation continues to assert title to its unceded territory.
The Daily Courier, Kelowna's daily newspaper, was established in 1904, a year before the town was incorporated.
Kelowna was incorporated as a city in 1905 with about 600 residents. Soon after, it had 11 sawmills, three fruit-packing plants and two canneries, and orchards spread across the benches above the lake.
From the late 1800s most of Kelowna's Chinese residents lived in a small Chinatown on the block bounded by Abbott Street, Leon Avenue, Water Street and Harvey Avenue. In 1909 about 15 per cent of the town's population is estimated to have been of Chinese descent. The last traditional Chinatown business closed in 1978; UBC Okanagan researchers later found one original building still standing downtown.
By 1910 Kelowna was gaining fame as "The Orchard City" as fruit growing joined ranching and grain. The Okanagan became one of the largest fruit- and wine-producing regions in Canada.
Canadian National Railway main-line service arrived in 1925, ending the town's dependence on lake boats to move fruit and freight.
New Brunswick-born merchant W.A.C. Bennett moved to Kelowna during the Depression and bought a hardware store, building a chain of five. He began his political career in Kelowna and served as premier of British Columbia from 1952 to 1972, the longest in the province's history; his son Bill Bennett, who also became premier, likewise started his political career in Kelowna. W.A.C. Bennett died in Kelowna in 1979.
1946 – 2002
Veterans, a lake bridge, a premier from Kelowna and a new highway fuel rapid growth.
Kelowna grew quickly after the Second World War, partly because of a veterans' resettlement program. The population reached about 13,000 by 1961 and was approaching 60,000 twenty years later.
In 1958 a floating bridge across Okanagan Lake joined Kelowna with the communities on the west shore. It served for 50 years until the William R. Bennett Bridge replaced it in 2008.
In the early 1960s about 170 band members lived at Westbank but held only one seat on the council of the Okanagan Indian Band. After a committee of members pushed for separation, the Westbank Indian Band became independent on October 18, 1963, with Tsinstikeptum Reserves 9 and 10 and Mission Creek Reserve 8. Norman Lindley was its first elected chief.
Okanagan College, dating from 1965, began offering college and adult education programs in Kelowna. The University of British Columbia later opened its Okanagan campus in the city.
Syilx communities formed the Okanagan Tribal Council in 1981, signed the Okanagan Nation Declaration in 1987 and renamed the organization the Okanagan Nation Alliance in 1997. Its members include the Okanagan, Osoyoos, Penticton, Upper Nicola, Upper and Lower Similkameen bands, Westbank First Nation and the Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington State.
In 1982 Westbank settled a major specific land claim for reserve lands taken in the early 1900s, along with compensation for reserve land used to widen Highway 97. The band used the settlement to buy land in the Gallagher Canyon area east of Kelowna in 1984, which became Medicine Hill and Medicine Creek reserves in 2001.
⚖️ Officially acknowledged
Officially acknowledgedCanada and British Columbia settled Westbank's specific claim in 1982 for reserve lands removed in the early 1900s.
In 1990 Kelowna was connected to the Coquihalla Highway, giving it a more direct route to the Lower Mainland. By 2000 the city's population had reached about 100,000.
2003 – today
Major wildfires, a national Indigenous accord, Westbank self-government and a new bridge mark the 21st century.
In August 2003 a wildfire in Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, south of the city, spread into Kelowna. CBC described it as the most significant wildland-urban interface fire in BC history, causing about $200 million in damage and destroying more than 230 homes; reported evacuation totals differ, at about 27,000 to 33,000 people.
Westbank First Nation members ratified a self-government agreement with Canada on May 24, 2003, and it took effect on April 1, 2005, under federal legislation. The Syilx community across the lake from Kelowna now makes and enforces its own laws under its own constitution.
First ministers and leaders of five national Indigenous organizations met in Kelowna on November 24–25, 2005, and announced a 10-year plan with $5 billion over five years for Indigenous health, education, housing and economic opportunity. Parliament was dissolved four days later, and the new Conservative government funded related programs at lower levels. A private member's bill requiring annual progress reports on the accord became law in 2008.
⚖️ Disputed
DisputedWhether Ottawa broke a commitment is contested. Former prime minister Paul Martin and the opposition parties backed legislation to implement the accord; the Conservative government said it shared the accord's goals but noted Parliament had approved no funding for it, and budgeted less.
The University of British Columbia began operating its Okanagan campus in Kelowna in 2005; on-campus building space has grown by about 360 per cent since then. The campus was among the sites evacuated during the 2023 McDougall Creek wildfire.
The five-lane William R. Bennett Bridge, one of the few floating bridges in North America, replaced the 1958 Okanagan Lake Bridge in 2008. Kelowna sits at its eastern end.
The BC Coroners Service found 619 heat-related deaths across the province during the late-June 2021 heat dome. Its review recorded 15 deaths in Kelowna and 84 in the Interior Health region.
The 2021 census counted 144,576 residents in Kelowna, up from 127,390 in 2016. The city is the marketing, distribution and health care centre of the central Okanagan, with orchards, vineyards, wineries, tourism and construction important to its economy.
In mid-August 2023 the McDougall Creek wildfire swept down on West Kelowna and parts of Kelowna, forcing evacuations including UBC's Okanagan campus and closing the airspace over Kelowna International Airport. Premier David Eby declared a provincewide state of emergency on August 18. Nearly 200 homes were lost in a fire that scarred about 13,500 hectares of the central Okanagan.
About this timeline
Kelowna sits on the east shore of Okanagan Lake in the territory of the Syilx Okanagan people, whose name for the area means grizzly bear. An Oblate mission founded in 1859 brought the first orchards, and the town incorporated in 1905 grew into the "Orchard City" and later the main urban centre of the Okanagan. Since the 1950s new bridges and highways, tourism and retirement migration have driven fast growth, while wildfires in 2003 and 2023 have shaped its recent history.
5 moments on this page carry a government record note.
FAQ
The townsite was laid out in 1892 and Kelowna was incorporated as a city in 1905. Oblate missionaries settled nearby in 1859, and the Syilx Okanagan people have lived in the area for thousands of years.
Kelowna comes from the Okanagan (nsyilxcən) word for grizzly bear. Local accounts link the name to a hairy settler, August Gillard, whom Okanagan people jokingly compared to a bear.
The district around the 1859 Oblate mission, which missionaries called L'Anse au Sable, was known as Okanagan Mission before the Kelowna townsite was named in 1892.
No. Kelowna is on unceded Syilx Okanagan territory; reserves were set up in the early 1900s without a treaty, which the Syilx opposed.
Written from the sources linked on each moment: the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Parks Canada, Library and Archives Canada, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, provincial and city archives, and others. Where governments acted wrongly, we say so and note whether it has been officially acknowledged, is established by the record, or is disputed. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix it.
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