Once Thomas Shorts introduced the first steamboat on the lake, there was a steady rotation of new and better commercial vessels in the Okanagan, continuing until the mid 20th century. Each of these ships, however small, seemed to achieve a personality of their own, solidifying themselves into the collective memory of the community. In the Okanagan valley, each of these distinctive personalities helped to establish and provide for the settler communities in a myriad of ways.

Old Kelowna, Capt. Thomas Shorts. ca. 1890 In 1882 Thomas Shorts arrived in the Okanagan valley via the old Fur Brigade Trail after...

Tracing the origins of the steel in the S.S Sicamous, through steel markings.

There are no dredges that worked the Okanagan existing anymore, and few photographs to show. The photo below shows us what the Okanagan...

Following numerous negotiations with the provincial governments of the day, and a decade after the first surveys, construction finally...

Firemen working to keep the coal in the burners producing steam at the right pressure.

Air pump and jet condenser for a coal fired steam engine paddlewheeler