August29_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

The property on which this barn stands was part of the subdivision of land around KLO Road created by the Kelowna Land and Orchard Company, beginning in 1904, which opened the area up to intensive agriculture. The property was bought by Daniel McEachern, whose house, also still standing on this property, was built around 1905. McEachern was a solid member of this agricultural community. He served on the Rural School Board of the Mission Creek School when it opened in 1908, and remained in the position until at least 1911. He was listed in the 1910 Directory as 'rancher and tobacco farmer,' so he was then already involved in the second phase of tobacco farming in the Kelowna area, which started about 1905. Another, second, tobacco barn once located on the property, which is no longer standing, may have been built at that time.

The present barn was built around 1912 or 1913 by the British North American Tobacco Company (familiarly BNATCO), capitalized with $500,000 of mostly British money. The company's cigar factory still stands at 1250 Ellis Street. From 1912 to 1914 BNATCO embarked on an ambitious scheme to make tobacco-growing and processing a major industry here. The company bought considerable land, including the Mission Ranch, erected infrastructure such as curing barns (of which the present barn is characteristic) for the industry, and contracted with local farmers to plant 500 acres of tobacco in 1913. At that time tobacco was grown extensively on both sides of Benvoulin Road, in other fields at Okanagan Mission, and on the downtown site later occupied by Kelowna Secondary School (575-599A Harvey Avenue).

Photos - Frames left and center: More photos of the pond on the western end of Mission Creek Golf Course, but with Chrysemys Picta (Western Painted Turtle) lined up along the shoreline sunning themselves. Painted Turtles have yellow lines on the neck, head and legs with a red swoosh behind to ear on each side of their head. The Painted turtle. The upper part of the shell (called the carapace) is dark olive or nearly black with some of the individual shields having yellow or dull orange margins depending on the individual turtle. The underside of the shell (called the plastron) is very striking with symmetrical dark colors, reddish, orangish and yellowish lines.

Frame right: Another angle of the McEachern Barn at 3139 Benvoulin Road in East Kelowna.

Located at the corner of Spiers Road and Ward Road the View Winery building was a Packing House until the mid 1980s when the building was converted into a Cider House. The establishment still makes cider for select clients and has started making wine (first Vintage 2007). The owner has about 40 acres of vines and sells grapes to other local wineries, keeping about 15 % to 40 % to build their own wine label.

Photos - L-R - The family of Branta Canadensis (Canada Goose) who were quietly swimming in the pond at Mission Creek Golf Course have left the safety of the pond and are now heading for a tee-off area, or possibly for a few golf lessons in the fairway.

A John Deere 1140 Tractor parked in The View Winery property.

Stainless steel Aging Tanks used for making wine and Cider.

Photos - A walk around the old packing house building at 2287 Ward Road which was built before the two great World Wars and converted into a cider house in 1980.

Click here for more photos of Kelowna for this day.