Osoyoos (, is the southernmost town in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia between Penticton and Omak. The town is north of the United States border in Washington and is adjacent to the Osoyoos Indian reserve. There was a local newspaper, the Osoyoos Times, but merged with the Oliver Chronicle and became the Times Chronicle in May 2020.
The town's population of 5,556 (2021) swells in the summer months with seasonal visitors. Seniors (age 65 and over) comprise 43% of the town population. Another 2,139 people live around the town within Electoral Area A of the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, and 1,426 more in the Osoyoos 1 Indian Reserve.
History
thumb|left|Osoyoos, 1943
The first Europeans to visit Osoyoos were fur traders working for the Pacific Fur Company, an American enterprise. They ventured up the Okanagan River to Osoyoos Lake and farther north. After the Hudson's Bay Company took over the fur trade in 1821, the Okanagan Valley became a major trade route for supplies to inland forts of British Columbia and furs that were shipped south to the Columbia River and the Pacific to European and Asian markets. The final Hudson's Bay Company brigade in 1860 was the end of an era, as gold rushes transformed the economy of the new Colony of British Columbia. As parties of miners headed for the Fraser goldfields via the Okanagan Trail, they commonly met conflict with the Okanagan people. The Dewdney Trail passed through Osoyoos on its way from Hope to the Kootenays. The trail now forms the backbone of the Crowsnest Highway.
Thousands of miners heading to the goldfields and drovers with large herds of livestock crossed the 49th parallel after 1858. A customs house was built in Osoyoos in 1861 with John Carmichael Haynes as the tax collector. Haynes was also the first pioneer settler who obtained land along the Okanagan River north of Osoyoos that had been part of the Osoyoos Indian Reserve established by the Joint Indian Reserve Commission in 1877. These lands, now known as the Haynes Lease lands, remain as an original house and barn.
Osoyoos was incorporated as a village in 1946 when the railway arrived and became a town in the 1980s. When the railway was discontinued, its station house was purchased from the Town of Osoyoos and moved 300 m north to its current location by the Osoyoos Sailing Club.
Geography
Osoyoos is situated on the east-west Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3) with a significant ascent out of the Okanagan Valley in either direction. The Crowsnest headed east begins with an switchback up the flank of the Okanagan Highland with a rise to the mining and ranching region of Anarchist Mountain, which is part of the Boundary Country (the stretch of rising highway is also referred to as Anarchist Mountain). Highway 3 westbound leads to Keremeos and the Similkameen Valley via Richter Pass. On Highway 97 south is a 24-hour border crossing between Canada and the United States between Osoyoos and Oroville, Washington. The Canada–United States border is located south of the Highway 3 and 97 intersection on the northwest side of town.
The town is situated on Osoyoos Lake, which has a perimeter of , an elevation of , a maximum depth of , and a mean depth of . The lake's elevation marks the lowest point in Canada of the Okanagan Valley.
Ecology
The far southern reaches of the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys are part of a threatened xeric shrubland ecosystem in Canada known as the Columbia Plateau ecoregion. Specifically, the ecosystem of the area is named after the antelope brush plant typical of the local climate. This ecosystem was once more prevalent in the South Okanagan but is now becoming fragmented and degraded due to the spread of agriculture, urban development, and other human activities.
Since 2003, a feasibility study by Parks Canada has been going on to determine the need for protection of a large area of grasslands west of the town known as the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen National Park Reserve Feasibility Study.
Climate
The climate, according to the Köppen climate classification, is a cold semi-arid ('BSk') with summers that are generally hot and dry. Although it claims to be a desert, Osoyoos is actually about too wet to be an actual desert. The average daytime temperature in Osoyoos is , which is the warmest in Canada.