A snippet into the past of Southern B.C. has revealed itself in the form of a City of Vancouver archival video.

The rather crisp and high-quality silent film showcases a rare look into the every day life of Southern B.C. residents during the mid to late 1930s.

Penticton historian Randy Manuel was blown away by the footage.

鈥淚t is fascinating,鈥� said Manuel. 鈥淚t is a piece of Okanagan and Kootenay history that just has not been seen. I was surprised to see this piece of film that one does not usually associate with this era. People would have had some private funding to have a camera. The clarity of the film is fantastic.鈥�

The segment shown above is part of a series of three films called We Drivers that were produced for Vancouver鈥檚 Trimble Service Garage.

Shot on an eight-millimetre camera, the film showcases footage captured between 1936 and 1939 of the Arrow Lake and Penticton region.

The 10-minute film contains footage of the sternwheeler S.S. Minto (0:30 mark), Nakusp, a steamboat, Arrow Park, Carrolls Landing, Burton, Penticton and Okanagan Lake as well as several towns and some beach scenes.

鈥淣akusp was remote country in those days and a lot of those little towns along the way, Arrow Park (2:45 mark), they are all under water now because of the big Hugh Keenleyside Dam that was built just upstream from Castlegar. All those towns shown are now 85 feet under water,鈥� explained Manuel.

鈥淭his also shows very rare footage of sternwheelers operating and the shots of Penticton (5:00 mark) showing Penticton鈥檚 waterfront (6:10 mark). It also shows Penticton鈥檚 Main Street (7:00 mark) which I suspect is roughly 1937 footage as the original 1936 post office is in the background, as well as the The Three Gables Hotel.鈥�

Manuel said the video revealed even more 鈥渘eat鈥� pieces of Penticton history.

鈥淭he other neat thing is the scene with the cows being milked (8:20 mark). That is Bird鈥檚 Dairy, which was located just about where the trade and convention centre is today.鈥�

Manuel said that region was called the 鈥渕eadows,鈥� as anything west of Power Street was natural grasslands and marshes at the time.

鈥淭he Bird family had a dairy down that way. The last houses going west would have ended at the end of Wade Avenue, anything further west was marshy. If you had a year like this year where Okanagan Lake came up high, that would all naturally be under water,鈥� said Manuel.

The video recently gained traction after it was . Their Facebook upload has already racked up more than 29,000 views and 460 shares.

carmen.weld@bpdigital.ca
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