Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Steve Windsor April 01, 2021 - 12:05 PM The beloved blue and white sailboat containing 120 years of Okanagan history is no more after it was destroyed by fire. Holiday Park Resort’s marketing landmark along Highway 97 in Lake Country has been showcasing the resort since its inception in the 1980s. Early this morning, April 1, president of the resort Dan Sigal watched as firefighters battled the blaze that ultimately destroyed the boat. Lake Country fire chief Steve Windsor said the boat was fully involved by the time firefighters arrived shortly after 1:30 a.m. “It’s almost like the passing of a well-known human. Being on the corner of the highway there, for that long of a time, it’s hit a lot of people. The resort staff is all upset and saddened,” Sigal said. “I kept wishing it was a joke, being the day it is. The phone call I thought was but it became pretty real, pretty quick.”
February 20, 2021 - 7:30 AM What may be the only surviving piece of a popular Okanagan fairy tale theme park in the 1970s will be transformed into a fruit and nut stand. Adventureland was likely the Okanagan’s first theme park. Owners Samuel and Dorothy Pestes opened the park in 1966 along Highway 97 (now Pelmewash Parkway). The adventure park had a time machine, Old Mother Hubbard s shoe that doubled as a ticket booth and gift shop, a petting zoo, rides, a mini-golf course and more. Then it was sold to the owners of Flintstones Bedrock City, another former park in Kelowna, in 1982. It went bankrupt during the recession.
February 12, 2021 - 10:30 AM With Family Day weekend just around the corner, museums and art galleries in the Okanagan and Kamloops are offering both online and in-person educational events. Family Day is a statutory holiday celebrated on the third Monday of February in B.C. This year’s holiday lands on Monday, Feb. 15.
Central Okanagan
Artifact or Artifiction? : A Family Day Special Event The Okanagan Heritage Museum is inviting families to unplug and play this Family Day, Feb. 15. Explore the museum’s collection and discover if the artifacts are fact or fiction. The event goes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and social distancing measures will be in place.
(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca) January 31, 2021 - 8:00 AM A blue and white sailboat has been the marketing staple of Holiday Park Resort since its inception in the 1980s, but the boat has a far longer history, some of which was spent beneath the waves of Okanagan Lake. The sailboat is actually the Orchard City II, a tugboat commissioned in 1903 that was used to cart logs across Okanagan Lake. In 1948, it sank after a storm near Kelowna’s Mission area, where it sat for almost 30 years, according to Old Kelowna, a Facebook page which highlights the Central Okanagan’s history. In 1979, it came back to the surface when Kelowna entrepreneur Leo Budnick decided to use it as a restaurant.