Aug 06, 2016 — GREENWOOD, BC (BG)

The last decades of the 19th Century saw the arrival of hundreds, and eventually thousands of men who came to discover, mine and hopefully get rich on gold, silver, and copper deposits in the hills around Greenwood. They laboured hard, and needed not only shelter, transport and tools, but also large stocks of food to sustain them.

Agriculture in British Columbia's Boundary region was minimal in the late 1880's, beyond individual ranches providing for themselves. Fortunately, there were more ample food sources available to Greenwood miners from nearby towns, both east and west.

In the 1890s, wild horses were being rounded up in the Kelowna area and sold to miners traveling up to the Klondike gold rush. But they were not necessarily being used just for transport. Earlier in the 1800s, explorers in the region recorded finding First Nations people in B.C. who were keeping horses as a food stock. By the 1880's there are records of thousands of horses owned by First Nations people in the Kootenays. Their impact on the southern interior grasslands has long been a topic of study.

Along with the early gold rush came many ranches in the Boundary region, and they raised various livestock to help feed the growing population. Grazing was uncontrolled in those days, and the result was the near complete destruction of grasslands in the lower valley areas.

As the railway system developed in the 1880's, southern interior livestock was being shipped west for the Vancouver and Fraser Valley markets. But here in the Boundary, Okanagan cattle were being shipped east to feed the boom towns at Greenwood, and Midway._[1]

Fortunately, the diet of Greenwood's mining community featured more than just meat. There were also excellent fresh fruits and vegetables coming in from the Okanagan.

In 1885, James Gartrell arrived at Trout Creek near Summerland, from Ontario. There he built one of the Okanagan's finest commercial orchards, starting with peaches. His was also the valley's first irrigated orchard. He and brother Fred grew many varieties of fruits and vegetables that found their way onto the dinner tables in the Greenwood mining camps.

The Gartrell brothers' agricultural produce was delivered to the mining camps at Greenwood, and to Camp McKinney and Fairview. The harvest was hauled in a wagon drawn by a six-horse team. It took the Gartrell's three days to make the round trip.

The Gartrell brothers received numerous awards for their fruit, from Canada, the U.S. and Britain. Today the family farm is still in operation, run by the Gartrell's fifth generation of farmers and orchardists._[2] While the distribution system has changed tremendously, Greenwood residents may well be enjoying their Okanagan produce to this very day.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Grasslands Conservation Council of British Columbia

[2] Summerland Review