While approximately 130,000 individuals call Kelowna, BC home today, this vibrant community has grown exponentially since its humble beginnings. Lands once only traversed by natives such as the Syilx of the Okanagan First Nation eventually caught the attention of a Scottish fur trader named David Stuart in 1811.
Within five decades of that visit, Oblate missionaries came and constructed a mission under the guidance of Father Pandosy, and church members settled in the area around 1859. Just two years later, Hudson's Bay Company set up a tradition post and eventually added a grain mill in 1871. The community flourished as more people sought out these peaceful lands, and the area eventually came to be called Kelowna around 1892.