Aboriginal People roamed the Okanagan Valley. The Okanagan Indians believe in the Great Spirit and, according to tradition, were rulers of the Valley. Their territory extended from Vernon to Tonasket (Washington) and from Rock Creek to Princeton.
The Inkameep Indians, sometimes called the Osoyoos Band, migrated here and settled on the east side of Osoyoos Lake. Here they caught spawning salmon and smoked them for winter food. The ancient people depended on nature for their livelihood, storing supplies for winter, and half of the Nk'Mip diet was derived from plants.
Diseases brought by the white man reduced the population to less than half. They lived entirely in a food gathering and hunting economy. Food consisted of tubers, berries, fish, deer, mountain sheep and bear killed by bows and arrows. Beaver, Muskrat and rabbits were trapped. Clothing was made from tanned and worked deerskin, cut with a stone knife and sewn with a bone needle and thread of sinew.
Traces can be found up and down the valley of winter camps, and artifacts can still be found, ranging from flint arrowheads and stone knife blades to jadeite axe-heads (British Columbia jade).
The Osoyoos Indian Band, (Nk'Mip) was formed in Nov. 21, 1877. Band members are strong, independent and proud, possessing a rich heritage in British Columbia. The reserve inhabits some of the last large tracts of desert land, where about 370 members live. Traditions and heritage play an important part in their daily life.
Historical Overview
The first peoples of the South Okanagan settled in the area around Osoyoos and raised cattle and wild horses. The first encroachment from white man came in approximately 1811, when fur traders came searching for better trade routes. Prospectors soon followed and established mining communities in the hills above the Okanagan Valley.
In the 1880's, free gold bearing quartz was found east of present day Oliver, and Camp McKinney became a busy gold mine. In its heyday Camp McKinney had five hotels and many saloons, and the camp attracted the usual characters: miners, con men, and outlaws.
In August 1896 at Camp McKinney, a dusty little B.C. gold mining town a man climbed into his buckboard with three gold bars concealed in his saddle bags which he put on the floor boards behind him. As he rounded a turn near McMynn's Meadows, about two or three miles from Camp, he jerked his team to a sudden stop. Barring the road, Winchester in hand and at the ready was a masked bandit. It has been suggested and after considerable investigation that the bandit buried that gold in one of the numerous old water filled shafts in the area. That gold has never been recovered and at today's prices the two remaining gold bars are worth over $190,000. But you say, there were three bars - true - but it was learned that one of the gold bars (the smallest) was used for the bandit's expenses.
Camp McKinney is deserted now, Even the ghosts have gone. Only a few piles of decaying lumber and an occasional log cabin mark its passing. A dusty, but good, gravel road leads to it from Rock Creek and passes through what was once its main street. Somewhere out there are two gold bars buried in a shallow hole, and should be easy to detect with a good metal detector. However, getting close enough to detect them may be a problem.
Another miner's claim is staked on an outcrop near the townsite of Fairview near Oliver. The claim consists of 2,000 acres where he builds a small cabin. Jeff Miller the miner shows relatives a coffee can full of gold nuggets and says he'll draw a map giving directions to the mine - to be given out upon his death. He dies of a heart- attack before being able to carry out his promise. Neither mine nor gold-filled coffee can have been located.
Vaseux Lake Pictographs
Today, you can still see some of the ancient people's handiwork and feel their presence as they reach out to you from the past to share their visions. Step back in time and feel the awareness of days gone by.
If you spend some time hiking in the hills near Vaseux Lake you will come across rock painting - pictographs of red ochre. The native peoples of these areas had an awareness of unseen mystical forces that played a defining role in their lives. The seasons, the movement of game and fish, fluctuating abundance of food plants, the moon and stars, in oral tradition and dreams were all woven into this understanding of the mystical forces. Many of these were expressed in rock paintings. The artists may have been interpreting dreams, visions, prayers, depicting results of a hunt or the desire for a successful hunt, or recounting of a mystical experience. These are sites of communication.....some of the paintings date to between 1800-2000 years ago. The best data suggests that interior British Columbia rock art was painted and carved during the past two to three thousand years.
In the Past
The property that Rolling Hills Vineyard B&B sits on is land that was once a part of the old CPR railway right-of-way. In the early 1900's large tracts of the land were divided and sold off in acre parcels to settlers. To this day some of the old railway tyes can still be found in the fields of some unsuspecting farmer or rancher. Sometimes at night when the wind blows though the pine trees the ghost trains of long ago blow their whistles as they pass through the mountain gorge directly behind the ranch, conjuring up visions of times past and if you close your eyes you can almost hear the clickety clack of the rails as it wends its way North or South.
