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A Little Twin Lakes History
By Coral Brown
Charles de Blois Green passed away in 1929, but his family remained at the Twin Lake Ranch (the Upper Ranch) until I believe about 1956. Charles’ sons built the large red barn at the head of Horn Lake in about 1948, which still remains today. (Shown below) Charles did survey most of the Orofino Mountain mining claims. He lived in the winter with his family at the north end of Osoyoos Lake and in the spring through the fall at his Twin Lake Ranch.
The first water license in the Twin Lakes Area was in 1903 to Mr. Noad. And, then in 1904 to Charles de Blois Green. In one of the Museums, I have read more about Charles life, even travels by train in the area and over to the Kootenays and down to Washington State. The Penticton Museum has lots of information on the many bird species that he discovered. I am curious to know if Green Mountain Road was named after Charles de Blois Green.
So, why did the Greens arrive and settle at the south end of the shallow Horn Lake and not Lower Twin Lake? This could be aquestion for a follow up article.
TWIN LAKES: History of an Okanagan Watershed
Researched by C. Brown & R. Manuel in 2015 from the Penticton Museum, Penticton Herald, the 1973 Botham Report and some information by pioneers of the Twin Lakes Area.
Fur Traders on the Fur Brigade Trail of the Northwest Co. (1812 to 1825) and then the Hudson Bay Company (until 1849) had incursions into the Twin Lakes Area. The field of Lot 280, which is just north of the Twin Lake and White Lake Rd. intersection was the Fur Traders’ “Parc” (corral, pen or campsite) for which Park Rill was named. “The Valley of the Healing”, now recognized as the White Lake Valley, was a First Nations fall “herb-gathering-site”. Herbs grew abundantly with the valley’s long days of sunlight and water from Park Rill and Lower Horn Creek. In wet years the Twin Lakes became one and overflowed east to Lower Horn & Park Rill Creeks. Twin Lakes is the name given on the first survey map to the 2 Lakes – Upper Twin, now called Horn, and Lower Twin Lake.
By 1903, a water license tells us that an English surveyor, Charles deBlois Green (1863 to1929) and his family were the first “summertime settlers” to the Twin Lakes Area. The Greens travelled on the “Old Wagon Road” built on the Fur Brigade Trail from Keremeos north along the valley (where Hwy. 3A runs) to the now White Lake Road West. Yellow Lake’s rocky shores were impassable. Charles’ family remained on the “Upper Ranch” of Horn Lake until1956. Mr. Green surveyed many of the Orofino Mt. mining claims – there were 2 active gold mines – Upper and Lower Orofino which closed in 1932. Charles, in addition to surveying, was a naturalist and documented rare species (some are in the Penticton Museum). By 1911 Gilbert Taylor, a rancher on the “Middle Ranch” obtained a water license to irrigate Lot 280 and 281 (the “Parc”), but the license lapsed in 1926.
In 1918, when Charles deBlois Green returned from WW1, the Greens took up full time residence at the “Upper Ranch” (Horn Lake/ Upper Twin Lake or Elkhorn Ranch). Remains of the Old Wagon Road, the Greens’ homestead site with the1948 “Horn Lake Barn” and 3 or 4 graves are still visible on the property now belonging to the Nature Trust of BC (TNT of BC). In 1948 an earth dam with a slide culvert was constructed at the outlet of Horn Lake for some waterway control and is in use today.
From Horn Lake the Old Wagon Road went to the mining town of Fairview via White Lake where a post office opened in 1895 until 1925 with Hiram Inglee as the first post master (PM). The old post office structure still remains. Another Wagon Road to Penticton was rerouted along the west side of Horn and Twin Lake; then over what is now a golf course, then west of Trout (Lush) Lake as there was a rock cliff on the east shore of Trout Lake. From the top of Trout Lake’s east rock ledge 3 valleys are visible. The new Wagon Road passed down the slope to the Marron Valley’s west bench and in 1909 a post office was opened in the Marron Valley with PM William Smyth Parker, and followed by PMs Lush, Walker and Learne until it closed in1933. The first area ski hill (early 1930s until 1940) called the Elkhorn Ski Hill was near the “Parc”.
During the early agricultural years the Twin Lakes Area consisted of 3 ranches – the Greens (1903 to 1956) “Upper” Ranch and the Sutherlands (1930 to 1959) “Middle and Lower” Ranches – and the Learnes farm (1933 to1945) which is now the Twin Lakes Golf Course . The Sutherlands were great horsemen and purchased the Learnes’ farm in 1945 for a hayfield and began the Twin Lakes Guest Ranch (1945 to1975) around the north end of Twin Lake. The Guest Ranch became a world renowned horseback riding retreat.
Along with the 1948 dam, in 1952 the first watershed management was attempted when the Sutherlands dug a 500 ft. long, 15 inch diameter pipe through a “divide” with a maximum 25 ft. depth in Lot 280 to remove flood waters from Twin Lake to Lower Horn Creek. John Stewart owned DL 282 & 283 downstream and was authorized to put a drainage/irrigation pipe and take the wet year water from Lower Horn Creek. In 1956 R.A.Wassman purchased the Upper Ranch from Greens and in 1959 the Middle Ranch from Sutherlands. The Twin Lake front properties of the Middle Ranch had been subdivided by Sutherlands prior to the Wassman purchase. Eric Ripley, a Vancouver real estate agent sold the lakefront Twin Lake properties of the Middle Ranch in the late 50s. David Johnson purchased the Guest Ranch, but sold in 1962 to Doug Hadley who operated it until 1975 after which the Guest Ranch land was also subdivided. Mr. Wassman owned the Middle and Upper Ranch land (now owned by the TNT of BC) and then purchased Sutherland’s hayfield (the Twin Lake Golf Course – TLGC).
Because the Twin Lakes Watershed is situated in the rain shadow of Apex Mountain, it is an environmentally sensitive area, in the semi arid S. Okanagan. Horn Creek, beginning at 1550 masl, is the main feeder creek in the Twin Lakes Watershed. Horn Creek flows to Horn Lake for about 3 to 5 weeks in the spring and the flow varies according to the snow pack, precipitation and climate. From the early 1900s until 2005 there was logging on Orofino Mt. and along Horn Creek even within the stand of the “Old Growth Cedars”. “Water issues” at Twin Lakes have been documented since the 1940s when ranchers had conflicts initially with their gravity feed irrigation and later when pumping and storing water. Power was put into the area in 1964 and in the same year Mr. Charney, who operated a small lumber mill opened the Twin Lakes Store which was purchased by Pete & Merle Kappes in Sept. 1975.
In 1960 the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory was founded. It is located to the NE, just over Parker Mountain, from Twin Lakes. In 1961 a UBC S. Okanagan Geological Field School was built along Willowbrook Rd. The volcanic rock formations of the Twin Lakes Area are of significant interest.
Recreational property owners around Twin Lake had water concerns when Mr. Wassman closed in the pipe and ditch to Lower Horn Creek in 1961. Historically, there has been about a 15 year water cycle, and so, when in dry years there is time to forget the flooding of the wet years and during the wet years to forget the drought years. In 1965 the Lower Nipit Improvement District was formed as a means of waterway management. BC Lands & Forests produced the 1973 Botham Report, a historical document outlining a potential cooperative, basic plan for the Twin Lakes Waterway.
In 1970 Mr. Wassman started excavations for a golf course along Hwy. 3A. After Wassman’s untimely death, the Shilitto family purchased the 9-hole golf course in 1975. By 1988, the 18- hole TLGC opened followed by the RV Park in 1989. There has been slow, periodic, small development in the Twin Lakes area since early 1960, but in 1972 “Gabriola Wildwood Estates” (Sydney Harrison, a Vancouver developer) attempted a large development on the Upper Ranch (the western aspect of Twin Lake, the “Turtle Pond” and the land around Horn Lake) with 4,000 lots, riding stables, hiking trails, a hotel and a swimming pool. In 1977 the RDOS Board voted against what finally became a proposed 241 residence development (see the Penticton Herald 1977).
In 2011, as local development issues became public, a consortium of stakeholders along with the Okanagan Basin Water Board installed 2 groundwater monitoring wells at either end of the Lower Twin Lake which had lost 13 ft. of water over 10 dry years. The monitoring wells were installed to provide documentation of groundwater levels. It became evident that in dry years there was not enough water for all in the Twin Lakes basin – many residents lost water in their wells and lake intakes.
In 2012 The Nature Trust of BC purchased – 800 hectares for conservation of rare grassland habitat from Jim McPherson (1990 to 2012). The Twin R Ranch was advertised in 7 large properties. Mr. McPherson had purchased the Middle and Upper Twin Lake Ranches from the Kriegers, cattle ranchers, who first owned the White Lake Ranch and then purchased Wassman’s Middle Ranch, followed by the Upper Ranch (Greens’) when the 1972 development proposal failed in 1977. The 800 ha ranch has leasehold cattle grazing.
The Greater Twin Lake Area Stewardship Society was formed in 2013. The Twin Lakes Area has been influenced by mining, upland “Old Growth” logging, ranching, then “recreational land use” and now conservation.
The Nature Trusts’ 800 ha “Twin Lake Ranch” includes sagebrush shrub steppe, dry forested ecosystems and riparian habitats (the Twin Lake waterway runs through the Nature Trust property). At least 8 Species at Risk (COSEWIC listed) are known to occupy the property, including the Tiger Salamander, the Spade Foot, Great Basin Gopher Snake, Pallid Bat, Rubber Boa, Western Painted Turtle, Western Rattlesnake and Showy Phlox” (www.naturetrust.bc.ca).
