Site History - Pandosy Mission - Kelowna, BC - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

SITE HISTORY

Founded by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (0M1) in 1860, the Father Pandosy Mission and Museum site was originally called the Immaculate Conception Mission.

The pre-empted 160 acres were registered on November 30, 1860, with Magistrate William George Cox, at his office in Rock Creek. Thus began the first permanent European non-native settlement in the interior of the Crown Colony of British Columbia now known as British Columbia.

In the late 1890s the Mission headquarters were moved to St. Louis Mission in Kamloops. In 1902, the 2500 acres once owned by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) were sold to Messrs. Gruell and Fascioux who in turn sold to the Kelowna Land and Orchard Co. (KLO) in 1906.

In 1954, the three oldest dovetailed cedar log constructed buildings were destined to be demolished. The site was saved with the intervention of seven gentlemen who, along with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, re-purchased the 15 acres of land once owned by the Oblates.

Today, the Mission property is owned by the Bishop of Nelson. A committee, under the direction of the Okanagan Historical Society, lease and look after the operation and maintenance of the four-acre site.
From the Sign at the Building

Immaculate Conception Mission
Founded in 1859 by Father Charles Marie Pandosy, an Oblate Missiomary, to serve the Native Okanagan People, this was the first Roman Catholic Mission in the interior of British Columbia.

Within the Okanagan Valley the mission was the first permanent non-native settlement, site of the first school and place where the first fruit and vine crops were grown.

Restored in 1958. Designated a Provincial Heritage Site in 1983. Operated by the Okanagan Historical Society.
From the Sign at the entrance to the mission