Silver Tea and Strawberry Shortcake at the Fintry Estate – 2004

On June 21, 2004 members of the VCCC – Okanagan Chapter dressed up in era costumes related to the year of their cars and attended the ‘Friends of Fintry’ Silver Tea. What follows is a brief overview of Fintry (details can be found at their website www.fintry.ca)

Fintry is a beautiful provincial park on the west shore of Okanagan Lake, half way between Kelowna and Vernon. It has a past to be proud of... a present to delight campers, bird watchers, hikers, boaters, swimmers - and, with its very special heritage buildings, history buffs!

Captain Thomas Shorts was the first white man to call the delta home. In 1882, he preempted what was soon called “Shorts’ Point”, but he wasn’t really interested in improving the land, as the official agreement required. He found it more profitable to provide Okanagan Lake’s first commercial transportation. He would freight and passengers the125 km (78 miles) from Okanagan Landing at the north end of the Vernon Arm all the way to Penticton at the south end. When CPR sternwheelers splashed into the lake in 1893, they put Shorts out of business. He sold the delta and it passed through a number of hands until James Cameron Dun-Waters appeared on the horizon. He fell in love with the area, bought it, renamed it Fintry, after his home in Scotland and, with amazing foresight and ingenuity, created a Garden of Eden in the Okanagan.

Some of Dun-Waters’ most impressive buildings are now in the care of BC Parks and the Friends of Fintry Society. The last remaining packing-house that was serviced by sternwheelers stands on the point. The gracious Manor House and unique octagonal dairy barn are open for guided tours during in summer months. The above was taken directly from the Fintry website at www.fintry.ca.













Photographs courtesy of Jack Bergeron, Okanagan Chapter