Environmental History of Rod in Okanagan-Boundary
December 11, 2023 By: rodmac
HIST 3991 MacLeod Clan in Canada
Exercise 2 – Family Environmental History
Rod MacLeod T00449542 December 2023
The MacLeod clan came to Canada in the late 1700s when the English determined that the Scottish tenant farmer population was interfering with the raising of sheep, and shipped hundreds of families off to the colonies. This is known as the Highland clearances and is a defining moment for both Scottish and Canadian history.
The clan settled near Pictou, Nova Scotia and many worked in the local coal mines. A fire at Acadia Mines in 1873 resulted in the death of 60 miners as the owners diverted the river into the mine in order to save the valuable coal. My great-great-grandfather was one of those who died and my great- great-grandmother determined that no son of hers would be going into the mines. She sent my great-grandfather off to Springfield Bible college in Boston where he became a Baptist minister and a teacher. (MacLeod E. 1987)
He was sent west to administer the scriptures to the many Scots who had followed the railroad west. My Grandfather was born in Kamloops in 1901 and grew up in Summerland where his father taught at the Okanagan College for boys.
At some point they moved to Vancouver where my Dad was raised. After the war he attended UBC and since there was such a shortage of men he was able to take 1 year of general studies and a year of teacher training. He came back to the Okanagan teaching Math and PE at the high school in Oliver.
Both parents were active outdoors people as youth. My Mum grew up in Powell River, one of two daughters of an active fisher, hunter and boater and loved camping, hiking and playing outside well into her later years. My Dad was in Vancouver but also very active in Boy Scouts, hiking and skiing on Grouse and working on skills that would assist with the war effort.
We grew up in Osoyoos where all three of the next generation were raised in an idyllic setting. Lakes, mountains, sagebrush, rattlesnakes were ours for informal exploring, and as a Cub and then Boy Scout I learned many formal lessons around life in the outdoors.
One of the most valuable that I have tried to follow all my life is to always leave your campsite better than you found it. Pick up all garbage, leave some kindling for the next campers and dig a proper latrine were principles that have stuck with me and passed on to my kids. One wonders how much better our world would be if this basic principle was followed by everybody on a larger scale.
Growing up in a small interior town in the middle of the last century meant eating and shopping locally. There was a dairy in town, local fruit and veggies galore, and the concept of a root cellar was still prevalent, where gunny sacks of root vegetables were gathered in the fall and would last all winter. There was very little if any purchase of produce imported from California or other such exotic locales. Lumber for building our house came from the sawmill across the lake and the cut-off slabs from the mill provided wood to heat the house.
As the region grew in population many outdoor recreation activities became formalized. Where once we had hiked up some friend’s driveway and then hurtled back down the icy slope on wooden planks with no edges, eventually somebody had the brilliant idea to jack up the back of the tractor and run a rope around the tire up to a pulley on a tree. Over the years this became ever more sophisticated and there was an ongoing search for steeper and higher terrain where the season could be longer. This led eventually to the founding of Baldy Ski Area where there have now been all 9 of my parents grand kids and 12 of my parents great-grands learn how to ski.
The climate of the Okanagan has always allowed many kinds of fruits and vegetables to be commercially grown here and it turns out it is also pretty good at growing grapes. Tourism has always been an important industry with dependable hot weather, many lakes, paved road access from the coast have now been complemented by the wine industry. A side benefit has been that there was always money to be made in summer jobs, picking fruit, mowing lawns and working at a campground.
This last summer was totally different for tourism due to the extensive wildfires, many visitors were afraid to come due to the fire danger and many were put off by the thick smoke that settled into the valley and seemed to stay for months.
One of the main human induced changes to this region took place after the First War when it was decided that the men who had returned deserved to be able to have a farm. Since most of the good arable land was taken it was decided to take this desert area, and bring water to it. A dam was built across the river south of OK Falls and water diverted into the DITCH that ran by gravity all the way to the US Border. Each returning soldier was offered work on this massive construction project and the opportunity to buy farm plots at very reasonable prices.
The DITCH continues to supply irrigation water for much of the region but there is also extensive pumping from the river and lake around Osoyoos. (Cancela, 1986)
Water is going to become a major limitation to further growth in the Okanagan and there does not seem to be any willingness to slow down development of more housing. If severe drought conditions persist there will have to be some difficult choices made that could have drastic effects on all parties. Many families depend on the construction of new homes and condos for their livelihood, and so the effects of reducing the influx of new residents would be devasting.
Ironically the other main concern of the Okanagan Basin Water Board is flooding. They have to control the level of Okanagan Lake, via the dam at Penticton, to reduce the threat during the spring freshet yet maintain enough water in the lake over the whole summer for irrigation, domestic use and for tourists (OWB 2023). This is an incredible balancing act and it can become a state of emergency when it does not work out as planned.
I left home at age 17, very happy to escape this tiny, dusty, small town in the middle of nowhere, and worked most of my life in the mountain resort business all over the world. As retirement neared, the little cabin in the woods became much more attractive, in part due to the success of the mountain resorts into mega complexes. Sometimes one should be careful what we wish for. The last 4 years have been wonderful as I re-connect with my roots in the South Okanagan-Boundary with a new appreciation.
References
Cancela J., The Ditch: Lifeline of a Community. Okanagan Heritage Society. 1986
MacLeod E., Out on a Limb: Climbing the MacLeod Family Tree. Self-published 1987
Okanagan Water Board. Recovered Nov 2023 from: https://obwb.ca/