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About Kelowna

Where on earth is Kelowna?
Kelowna is located at 49 degrees, 50 minutes North and 119 degrees, 30 minutes West, in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada, about 395 Kilometres (245 Miles) east of Vancouver, B.C. It's 126 Km (77 Mi) to the US Border.

What goes on in Kelowna?
There is lots to do here, especially if you like being outside. There are several bicycling clubs, at least 17 golf courses, and plenty of places to hike.

Besides the big lake, there are plenty of smaller lakes nearby and higher up where you can fish.

In the winter, people ski. There are several ski resorts within an hour's drive, and the legendary Whistler area is within striking distance. Big White Ski Resort is about 45 minutes from town, and the last five or six kilometres is pretty dreadful road. In March, 1997, The Powers That Be at Big White announced "Improvement Plans" with the intent of creating a "world-class resort." These included a new hotel, the first hotel on the mountain to feature Room Service. That's good, because there were no announcements about "world-class roads."

You can find great local information at WelcomeToKelowna.com, including a few business-related facts..  Environment Canada kindly provides up-to-the-minute weather. Check out the current highway conditions, courtesy of the Ministry of Transportation. My favourite highway condition description is: "Bare, with slippery patches." 

Orchards and wineries abound. Kelowna is also home to four radio stations, a television station and a daily newspaper.

There are quite a few pubs and eateries here, however it's so far proven impossible to get a decent burrito. Several regional carriers operate out of Kelowna Airport, and Orchard Park Mall is said to be "world-class."  You can also check arrivals and departures at the airport from the comfort of your computer.

Kelowna is home to an art museum, a local theatre company, and several movie houses. We even have a Junior Hockey team called the Rockets.

Kelowna hosts several festivals year-round, including a Dragon Boat festival in September, and Snowfest in January. ("Snowfest" should have been a clue about the weather, but we didn't exactly believe it. We thought they trucked in the snow, I guess. Hey, they don't have real dragons for the dragon boat festival, you know.) You can see a complete list of events scheduled for this year at the Downtown Kelowna Association web site.

Hotels, motels, resorts and trailer parks are plentiful, but if you're coming to Kelowna you should make reservations. The whole town tends to be booked up unexpectedly, especially if you have an American accent. Accommodation information and more is available at the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce site. You may find some helpful information on castanet.net and the City of Kelowna even has a website, too.

Dogs in Kelowna
There is a dog owners association in Kelowna, and it's a darn good thing.  It turns out that Kelowna is the kind of place where you are not permitted to walk your dog, even on-leash, in City Park.  Or most other parks, either.

If you want to walk your dog someplace nice, try The Mission Creek Greenway on-leash, or check the Okanagan Dog Owners Association website for off-leash parks.

Art in Kelowna, or "Thanks for that pile of junk outside my store."
Someone talked the Mayor and the City Council into funding "art" in Kelowna.  Apparently the argument goes that tourists will be attracted to an area if there is art there. The City created a new "City Centre" in an area of town which is now called "Pandosy Village By The Lake" and commissioned "art" to be installed there.

The response was so under whelming that the City Council later had to approve additional funds for a plaque to be created identifying the pile of old farm implements as "art."  We are still waiting for the plaque to be installed.

In the meantime, one Kevin Stringer, an intrepid reader of The Daily Courier newspaper wrote to say: "Just a note from the village of Pandosy.  Thanks to the city's civic art people for spending the $20,000 for a few cool pieces of junk welded together (art object on Pandosy).

"It really gives people something to talk about.  It's a good meeting place; 'Hey, meet me at that cool pile of junk thing.'  Very metropolitan..."

There have been complaints about the "art" at the airport, too, but how much complaining can anyone stand?

Kelowna Factoids
Why Kelowna is called Kelowna: A Marketing Triumph
Kelowna was first named by the Fur Traders - L'Anse au Sable. The story goes that an early settler, August Gillard, built a crude underground shelter, a "keekwillie house" near the present day bridge at the south end of Ellis Street. As a group of Indians passed by, Gillard came crawling out in much the same manner as a bear. The Indians called out in their native tongue, "Kim-ach-touch", meaning Brown Bear. Bernard Lequime, when he set out the townsite on August 13,1892, remembered this story, but decided to call the town "Kelowna", meaning Grizzly Bear because it was easier for white men to pronounce.

We're sturgeon, er, CERTAIN Ogopogo exists
Okanagan Lake is home to a monster. Ogopogo is not an Indian name for the world-famous, friendliest inland sea monster. The name is derived from a music hall song that was popular in the 1920's:

I'm looking for the Ogopogo, the funny little Ogopogo
His mother was an Earwig and his Father was a Whale.
I'm going to put a little bit of salt upon his tail.

They don't write 'em like that anymore.

Indians referred to Ogopogo as N'HA-A-ITK which translates to "Lake Demon". Legend has it that the creature was actually a demon-possessed man who had murdered a local known as Old Kan-He-K. (Lake Okanagan was named in his honour.) As punishment, the native gods turned the murderer into the giant sea serpent so he would remain at the scene of the crime for all eternity.

To appease the monster N'HA-A-ITK (Ogopogo), the Indians offered small animals at its legendary lair/submarine caves off Squally Point near Rattlesnake Island. Ogopogo frequents the waters between his favourite island and Mission Valley and has made journeys to both ends of the lake. Recorded sightings date as far back as the early 1800's. In 1860, John McDougal lost his team of horses when they were pulled under as he was swimming them across the lake.

Ogopogo is dark green in colour, estimated at one to two feet in diameter with a length ranging between 15 to 50 feet. Ogopogo's head is said to resemble that of a horse or goat head with a beard, but is most likely a large sturgeon.

In 1926 the Government announced that the new ferry being built for travel across the Okanagan Lake would also be equipped with special "monster repelling devices." It is assumed that the present-day Okanagan Floating Bridge has enough strength to withstand any nuzzling from Ogopogo.