Osoyoos

Osoyoos, BC, incorporated as a town in 1946, population 4845 (2011c), 4752 (2006c). The Town of Osoyoos is located on Osoyoos Lake, 60 km south of Penticton in the Okanagan Valley. Soyoos ("where two lakes meet") was an Okanagan name. Hudson's Bay Co brigades passed here 1812-48. The British Columbia Gold Rushes helped open the area. A customs house was placed at the narrows in 1865. Customs collector John Carmichael Haynes, justice of the peace for Osoyoos and Kootenay districts, was a pioneer settler at Osoyoos and accumulated 8900 ha of land for a cattle and horse ranch. The first commercial orchard was established nearby in 1890. The South Okanagan Irrigation Project brought an irrigation canal to the area by 1919.

Economy

Tourism and agriculture are the main economic sectors. Osoyoos Lk is the warmest fresh water body in Canada and attracts thousands of tourists each summer. Fruit growing remains the main agricultural pursuit and the Sterile Insect Release Program, with its headquarters here, puts the area's apple growers on the leading edge of commercial pesticide-free apple production. Osoyoos is gaining prominence as an entry point to the US, resulting in increased interest from manufacturing enterprises.