Early Days in the Okanagan

Aye, I was very impressed with the hunting in the Okanagan Valley. I could see that the land itself had great potential. I said to myself, “J.C., this is where you want to live.” I was probably bored with my life in the old country. I loved being outdoors. Here in Canada I could make a fresh start. I could make something of my own, not live in the shadow of my ancestors. So in 1909, I bought 1,174 acres (475 hectares) of land at what was then called Shorts Point. I paid $22,500 for it (about $382,500 in today’s money). Although this was thought to be very expensive for land, cost was not important to me. I wanted to create a thriving estate for my own satisfaction.

Fintry Orchard

Right away I set about establishing an orchard. I had 100 acres (about 40 hectares) of apple trees planted. In time, the trees produced bumper crops. I hired a crew to look after the fruit farming. They pruned, sprayed, picked, and packed. I built a sawmill that prepared the wood needed for apple boxes. I built a packing house next to the wharf to handle our fruit. Apple boxes were filled in the packing house and wheeled across the wharf to be loaded into a boxcar that sat on a barge at the wharf. At the height of the season, our orchard was turning out a boxcar load of apples per day. That was 670 boxes per boxcar. One season, we shipped 85 carloads of apples.