OKANAGAN STAGE COACHES
Transportation in the Okanagan – before the Stern Wheelers arrived
Transportation in the Okanagan has evolved considerably over the years. While this website features a wealth of information on the steamship era in the Okanagan, have you ever wondered what came before that? Read on to find out about the horse-drawn carriages of the valley’s own faerie tale!
In the very beginning, mail was carried on horseback by anyone passing through the valley. As more settlers arrived, a regular mail service was established to Kamloops and the Okanagan by Barnard’s Express Stages, with a stagecoach traveling to the Okanagan once a week.
In 1872, BX Company began a service to Okanagan Mission, near Kelowna. These coaches could travel through mud and snow, but sleighs were required in the winter to carry mail, freight, and passengers through heavy snow. In 1881, a BX worker opened another route that now included Okanagan Mission in the main route. This was sold to Price Ellison.
Ellison ran the stages from the Canadian Pacific Railway main line at Sicamous to Vernon. The 19th report of the Okanagan Historical Society includes an article by an Okanagan pioneer, detailing his experiences driving Ellison’s coaches: “[I drove] a three-seated democrat behind four horses…about 280 miles a week, sometimes over roads so bad that it taxed the strength and courage of the best horses, tugging long hours through mud and slush in the winter months; in the summer there was the heat and dust. Passengers were charged ten cents per mile, and extra for excess baggage. Express ranged from 25 cents up.” No wonder the Okanagan welcomed the luxurious, fast steamboats so warmly!
Even after the railway was completed and steamships were in regular use on Okanagan Lake, a horse-drawn coach still traveled between Vernon and Okanagan Mission over the next 10 years.
In 1907, William Scott took over the operation. One particular story gives us an idea of Scott’s character. On one cold winter day, his stage met a cutter on a single track of road. Both sides were piled high with snow.
The driver shouted, “I am Lord Aberdeen and I want to get by.”
William Scott retorted, “I am William Scott driving Her Majesty’s Mail, and I have the right- of-way.”
Lord Aberdeen, Governor General of Canada, pulled his team into the drifts and Her Majesty’s Mail was allowed to pass!
Soon after, Scott acknowledged the conveniences of modern technology and bought a motor car to replace the coaches.
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