Fintry Provincial Park’s rich, colourful history
The rich and colourful history of the Fintry Delta provides residents with a window to the past and how the northwest side of Okanagan Lake was settled and developed. Fintry Provincial Park was created in 1996 as a result of the visionaries who worked together to save this property for public benefit.
Prior to the creation of Fintry Provincial Park, sections of the delta were owned privately and went through various hands through the decades. Several proposals were made to the Regional District Parks Advisory Committee by prospective developers, including proposals for condominium developments and a golf course. In 1995, one such proposal was discussed which included the question, “What area of lakeshore within the development should be dedicated for park purposes?” Central Okanagan Regional District (CORD) Administrator Al Harrison suggested that there might be some means by which the Fintry Delta could instead be purchased under a partnership agreement with the provincial government and to turn this property into a British Columbia Provincial Park. Committee Chair Ben Lee, Regional Board Chair Robert Hobson, the Parks Advisory Board and Kelowna Mayor James H. Stuart agreed, recognizing the benefit to future generations.
The property was purchased for $7,680,000 in December 1995 and Fintry became a Provincial Park on April 30, 1996.
In the area of Fintry Provincial Park and south to Trader’s Cove, you can often see bighorn sheep. Although bighorn sheep are native to the park, these ones are not descendants of the original herd. Like many communities in the area, the herd arrived about 15 years ago and made this scenic stretch of road its home.
California bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis californiana) once roamed throughout the Okanagan and Similkameen. The original Shorts Point herd lived in the Fintry area, wintering on the delta and retreating to the bluffs during the spring lambing season. For centuries the Syilx people joined in earlywinter hunts, driving the sheep toward waiting hunters. The people ate the meat, tanned the hides for clothing and used the horns and bones to make tools and implements. Artisans heated the ram horns to a malleable temperature and shaped them for functional and ceremonial uses.
In the 1980s, the Shorts Point herd comprised about 50 sheep, but the number declined catastrophically in the early 1990s. By 2000, only three sheep remained. While the cause of the herd’s decline is a mystery, one factor was the forest growth that blocked its members’ traditional migration route from the upper Shorts Creek lambing range to the delta. Bighorn sheep dislike heavilyforested areas, where the grazing is poor and cougars can lurk. Herds are known to have abandoned entire ranges overgrown by forests.
After the 2000 count, hikers found the last ram’s carcass and its skull and horns were donated to the Fintry Estate. The BC government successfully reintroduced bighorn sheep to the area a few years later. A helicopter crew transported two breeding herds from Kamloops and deposited the sheep at upper Shorts Creek, the home of the original herd. The new herd also shunned the heavy forest and quickly moved to the open areas along Westside Road.
Also at Fintry Provincial Park are the heritage buildings erected by Captain James Cameron Dun-Waters.
The Manor House, octagonal dairy barn, hay barn-granary and packinghouse are all on the Canadian Register of Historic Places and open during the summer months. Short’s Creek runs through the park and a view of the spectacular triple waterfall can be seen by climbing the 300+ steps to the top.
The park covers 890 acres with almost two kilometres of waterfront and the adjacent protected area covers an additional 1292 acres of James Cameron DunWaters’ former estate. In 2000, the Friends of Fintry Provincial Park Society formed and we continue to put much work into restoration and showcasing the site through public tours and events.
Join us, May through mid-October, to tour the Manor House and learn about this fascinating history or contact the Friends of Fintry Provincial Park Society: Website: fintry.ca or Facebook: facebook.com/Fintry-Estate.
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The Kelowna Branch of the Okanagan Historical Society operates on the unceded traditional territory of the Syilx people. It gratefully acknowledges their traditional knowledge, the elders and all those who have gone before us.
This article is part of a series, submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society. Additional information would be welcome at P.O. Box 22105, Capri P.O., Kelowna, B.C., V1Y 9N9.