Castlegar is the second largest community in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada.
The Columbia and Western Railway was a historic Canadian narrow gauge railway located in southern British Columbia.
SS Naramata is a steam tug commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) company. She pushed barges and broke ice on Okanagan Lake from 1914 to 1967. After over 50 years of service, the boat was eventually retired and left to rest in Penticton beside her sister ship, SS Sicamous. In 2001, she was purchased by the S.S. Sicamous Restoration Society and is currently undergoing extensive renovations. Naramata is the only interior steam tug to be preserved in the province of British Columbia, Canada.
SS Okanagan was a steamship owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway Lake and River Service. The vessel was constructed in 1906 at Okanagan Landing and launched in 1907, becoming Okanagan Lake's second steamship. She linked the transportation hubs at both the north and south ends of Okanagan Lake (Vernon and Penticton, respectively, aiding the development of interior British Columbia with other steamships of the 1900s. The ship was retired in 1934 and sold for scrap and spare parts. Only the Stern Saloon, a room in the back of the upper deck, remains. It was moved to the SS Sicamous Heritage Park in Penticton in 2002, to undergo restoration work.
Canadian National Tug no. 6 was a diesel-powered tugboat owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway (CNR) company on Okanagan Lake, British Columbia. It was launched in 1948 and transferred railway barges between Penticton and Kelowna. It was retired in 1973, becoming the last of many tugboats to operate on Okanagan Lake. Tug 6 was moved to Penticton in 2007 to rest alongside the SS Naramata and SS Sicamous, two Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) steamboats, as part of the S.S. Sicamous Inland Marine Museum. The ships are currently being restored by the S.S. Sicamous Restoration Society.
MV Okanagan was a tugboat that operated on Okanagan Lake, Penticton, British Columbia, from 1947 to 1972. It was the largest and last Canadian Pacific-operated tugboat on Okanagan Lake and its retirement marked the end of Canadian Pacific’s service on B.C.’s inland lakes and rivers, as well as 80 years of service on Okanagan Lake. During service, the Okanagan pushed railway barges up and down the lake and broke ice during winter.
MV Grace Darling was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was an early internal combustion-driven boat run by the Canadian Pacific Railway company in 1919 and was used to move building stone from the granite quarry on the lake shore south of Vernon, British Columbia. Grace Darling was Vernon Granite's first power boat and was purchased from Mrs. Oswald Pease from Ewing's Landing in 1919. She was one of the first internal combustion engine-powered boats on the lake and greatly facilitated the transport of stone barges from the quarry. Grace Darling was replaced by SS Tum Tum and a second MV Grace Darling after retirement.
MV Grace Darling was a boat that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was the last boat used for the granite quarry in Vernon, British Columbia, after an earlier boat also named MV Grace Darling, as well as SS Tum Tum. Grace Darling was a custom-built Turner boat ordered from Vancouver, British Columbia in 1923. She was 20 feet (6.1 m) in length and was small, but durable, outlasting the quarry operation by four years. She was powered by a single-cylinder Easthope engine built for towing. The Canadian Pacific Railway company delivered her to Okanagan Landing by flat car and she was named after the earlier Grace Darling, which had then been retired. The new Grace Darling became known as a first-rate rough-water vessel and lasted for over 40 years, until she broke up on the rocks at Inkster's Bay during a storm in the late 1960s.
Canadian National Tug no. 5, or CN Tug no. 5, was a tugboat owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway (CNR) company on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was launched on May 8, 1930 and was a steel tug that pushed railway barges to the Okanagan Landing shipyard and railway connection to transport fruit. By the 1950s and 1960s, CNR had three tugs: MV Pentowna, CN Tug no. 6, and CN Tug no. 5. Only one tug operated at a time, though two would be used in busy times, and each tug only pushed one barge. CNR's competitor on the lake, the Canadian Pacific Railway company, ran three tugs at a time, as well as many sternwheelers over the years, and each tug pushed two barges. Although the date of CN Tug no. 5's retirement is unknown, CNR terminated barge service on the lake in 1973, retiring its last ship, CN Tug no. 6, due to the highways and other modes of transportation that had emerged by that time.
MV Kelowna-Westbank was a diesel-powered ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada beginning in 1927. Although private ferry service had long been established on the lake, Kelowna-Westbank became the first provincial government-operated ferry upon her launch on February 21, 1927.
MV Skookum, not to be confused with the 1906 ferry MV Skookum, was a ferry that linked the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
MV Trepanier was a ferry that operated between the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Trepanier was added to the Okanagan Lake Boat Company's fleet in 1912. The company's owner, Peter Roe, operated her and the earlier MV Skookum with his brothers, Fred and Gerald. Trepanier was purchased by Captain J. A. Noyes and his brother, I. R. Noyes, and used for pleasure trips until November 1913, when the larger MV Skookum, built in 1912 and not to be confused with the Skookum mentioned earlier, collided with the Canadian Pacific Railway company-operated SS Castlegar and sank. Although Trepanier was smaller than Skookum, she was used as a replacement and began regular ferry service soon after the crash.
SS Maude-Moore was a wood-burning screw steamer that provided a ferry service between the communities of Summerland, Naramata, and Penticton on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.
MV Mallard, later Kaleden, was a ferry that linked the communities of Summerland and Naramata on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada from 1908 to 1910, and later served Skaha Lake and Kaleden, British Columbia, under the name Kaleden.
SS Fairview was a wood-burning sternwheeler built at Okanagan Landing shipyard in 1894 to run between the communities Penticton and Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, Canada. She was built by M. E. Cousens, chief of engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway company-owned SS Aberdeen, and was the second steamship built at Okanagan Landing after Aberdeen. Although she was intended to run on Okanagan River between Penticton and Okanagan Falls, then called Dogtown, Fairview was too large for the river and was instead used for passenger and freight service on Okanagan Lake. Fairview caught fire at Okanagan Landing on the return trip from an excursion and burned in 1897.
Ruth Shorts was pioneer Captain Thomas Shorts' first boat on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada and starting with her, Shorts was the first boater on the lake, beginning a long history of ships and steam transportation that enabled the development of the Okanagan. In the early 1880s, Shorts thought of beginning a freight business on the lake and had Pringle and Hamill of Lansdowne build a rowboat with a capacity of 2.5 tons. The boat was 22 feet (6.7 m) long and had a small sail. Shorts named the boat Ruth Shorts after his mother and he began service in 1883. There was no set schedule, but the round trip generally took nine days and Shorts rowed in all weather for three years, averaging a passenger a month. He made about CAD$6000 rowing before venturing into steam with Mary Victoria Greenhow in 1886, only to lose his earnings.
Richard J. "Dick" Cannings is a Canadian biologist, author and politician. He is currently serving as the South Okanagan—West Kootenay member of parliament in the 42nd Canadian Parliament. He was elected to that position in the 2015 Canadian federal election as a member of the New Democratic Party. During that parliament he sponsored three private member bills: one to promote the use of wood in federal public works projects, one to add various lakes and rivers to Navigable Waters Protection Act, and another to a Minister of Environment to respond to a Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada report. Cannings was appointed the NDP Critic for Post-Secondary Education as well as the Deputy Critic for Natural Resources in the 42nd Canadian Parliament.
