Eleanor C Reece Memorial Park - Westbank, BC
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T0SHEA
N 49° 49.793 W 119° 37.510
11U E 311209 N 5523022
This park, at the eastern edge of downtown Westbank, was dedicated to the memory of Eleanor C Reece, one of the early pioneer women of the area, by the Westbank Women's Institute in 1961.
Waymark Code: WMGZCR
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 04/27/2013
Views: 3
Primarily a large, open area of lawn, this park offers two benches facing a cairn. This Cairn, placed by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, marks the historic "Brigade Trail" as it passed through the Okanagan Valley. This site is also the location of one of the original trading camps along the Okanagan Brigade Trail.
The plaque on the cairn reads thus:
"OKANAGAN BRIGADE TRAIL
This historic trail was developed from a network of travel and trade routes used by Aboriginal people for centuries. David Stuart of the Pacific Fur Company explored the trail from Fort Okanagan to Kamloops in 1811, and it was used in turn by fur brigades of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. Until the mid-century, fur traders passed by here to exchange goods for furs with the Okanagan and Shuswap Nations and others further north. Surviving sections of the trail along Lake Okanagan are a testimony to these former trading partnerships and the rich heritage of the region."
The Brigade Trail passed through near where this cairn stands, as it was geographically a natural place for a road, exemplified by the fact that the present day highway still uses parts of the same route. A part of this route would also have been used by the first settler to arrive in the area, Father Pandosy, who built a mission across the lake on the flats in Kelowna in 1859.
This cairn marks the Brigade Trail and recognizes it as a National Historic Event. Its web page is here: (
visit link)