On Wednesday April 16th, The S.S. Sicamous will be helping the S.S. Okanagan celebrate it's 118th Birthday
Stern saloon will be open to the general public from 10am to 3pm so come by to check out a piece of Okanagan history...
Some of the ship’s history:
The S.S. Okanagan was launched on April 16th, 1907 and "floated out on the bosom of Okanagan Lake as graceful as a swan".
At the time, the ship cost $90,000 which in 2025 would cost $3.1 million today.
The S.S. Okanagan provided daily passenger service with stops in Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland and Penticton for 27 years, from 1907 to 1934.
The trip would "only" take 3 hour and 15 minutes at the rate of "21 miles per hour".
There was a murder onboard in March 1912, when Constable Geoffrey Ashton was accompanying two men arrested earlier that day, taking them to jail in Kelowna and was shot by one of them.
The killer was Walter Boyd James, but preferred being called "Jesse" after folk hero of the time, Jesse James. The other prisoner, Frank Wilson, was apparently an innocent bystander.
Ashton was killed by James in the early hours of the morning between Penticton and Peachland, after successfully concealing a gun from the arresting officers.
The two prisoners then got off the ship in Peachland but were caught soon after.
Ashton survived the shot initially but died in the Kelowna hospital days later.
That same year, the Governor General of Canada, the Duke of Connaught and his wife, sailed on the ship as they toured BC.
Two years later in 1914, The S.S. Sicamous was launched and as a larger ship, it took over the daily passenger service and the S.S. Okanagan was then relegated to frieght and fruit hauling until retirement in 1934.
The S.S. Okanagan was retired in 1934 and sold for parts, with the Ladies Stern Saloon the only piece left intact.
The Stern Saloon went on sale in 1994, sold by Vernon's Gachter family, and bought by the S.S. Sicamous Society.
Due to it's size, it took four years for it to finally be moved to Penticton in 1998.
After some renovations and the laying of a concrete foundation, the Stern saloon was relocated in 2002 to the spot it inhabits today.
Learn more on this very website:
https://www.sssicamous.ca/ss-okanagan
