Okanagan Exporation: Final Task
Missionaries by: Tessa Hagblom
Origins/Dates
Importance..
Role of the Okanagan Fur Brigade Trail
Important European: Father Pandosy
Early History: A catholic church wanted a presence in the new land because the protestant church was already established there in the mid 1850. The catholic church asked France if they had and priest to send over a small group of oblates including Pandosy left marseilles in 1847 from the oblates of Mary immaculate. Father Pandosy was only 24 at the time that this occurred.
Reasons for Settlement in the Okanagan Valley: One of the reasons Pandosy settled is that Father Pandosy wanted to start a new colony in the interior and chose just the Okanagan. His mission was the first cemetery, this first pace of worship and the first school in the southern interior.
Early Accomplishments: Father Pandosy established two new missions during the Cayuse war. The immaculate conception and St. Josephs mission. during the war, St. Josephs mission was then destroyed. Father Pandosy and the other missionaries became threatened so they left Esquimalt on Vancouver island, which is now a part of British Columbia.
Accomplishments in the Okanagan Valley:
Father Pandosy was on of the very first settlers in Kelowna. When he traveled to the Okanagan valley in 1859 he travelled with a small group of assistants to establish the first permanent white settlement. Which is called the immaculate conception mission. this white settlement basically made Father Pandosy known. Father Pandosy spent plenty of time in Penticton, while there the first fruit trees in the valley were planted. Pandosy encouraged the settlers to pre-empt land and introduce the Indians of the region agriculture.
Legacy Today: The oblates of Mary immaculate bought the two acres that held the original building in 1954. in 1983, the site was designated as a B.C Heritage site, father Pandosy's mission is now four acres and other historic buildings have been put on site. the status of folk hero in the Okanagan. there have been films and plays made based on his life, and a street and winery named after him.
What was the Impact of the Early Europeans on the Growth and Development of the Okanagan Valley.
The impact that father Pandosy had on the growth and the development of the Okanagan valley was that father pandosy expanded the land and claimed it. Without father Pandosy the land would not be founded and probably wouldn't exist to this day. Father Pandosy didn't just claim the land, he also attracted many settlers into the town by setting up a church, a school and by planting the first fruit tree in the valley. So by doing these things Pandosy attracted people to come to the Okanagan valley and made the Okanagan popular and known.
Intresting Facts
Fact #1: One average teacher named Edmond Rivere from the school UBCO wrote a novel about father Pandosy himself, in the novel he shared over 100 letters that Pandosy wrote to his superiors, friends, and family. Edmond tracked down everything he could about father Pandosy and wrote it I hi book.
fact #2: Father Pandosy had beautiful original sawn wood church and sold it to locals and it was later burned down completely in a fire.