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British Columbia Tourism Region : Thompson Okanagan
Description From Owner:
- Ellis Creek - After Tom Ellis (1845-1918), a young Irishman who arrived in the Penticton area in 1865 and became the first settler here.
- At the peak of his career, Ellis was a cattle baron owning more than 30,000 acres extending from Okanagan Lake to Osoyoos Lake.
- He worked his ranch hands hard but was a good boss. He and Mrs. Ellis were hospitable hosts, and their home, where Penticton now stands, was a favourite stopping-place for early travellers.
- Kickininee Park - An anglicization of the Okanagan Indian word kekehi, meaning 'little salmon.' Kickininee, or kokanee, is the name of the landlocked sockeye salmon found in many Interior lakes.
- Mount Nkwala - Formerly Niggertoe Mountain but renamed Mount Nkwala, Nkwala being the Interior Salish pronunciation of Nicolas. (See Nicola Lake.)
- Penticton - The Indian name used by Tom Ellis (see Ellis Creek) for his Penticton Ranch founded in the 1860s. Penticton became the name of the post office opened here in 1889 and of the townsite laid out in 1892.
- Penticton was incorporated as a city in 1948.
- The name 'Penticton' apparently comes from an Okanagan Indian word that means 'the always place,' probably in the sense of 'permanent abode.'
- While most elderly Indians who speak the Okanagan language accept the 'forever place' meaning, in the early 1950s a Penticton Indian named Gideon Eneas gave anthropologist Norm Lerman a different derivation.
- He said that the original name for Penticton was 'Snpnpiniyatn,' a Nicola-Similkameen word meaning 'place where deer net was used.' This Nicola-Similkameen language is now extinct. (Information supplied by Randy Bouchard.)
- Shatford Creek - After Walter T. Shatford, local merchant and land developer in the 1890s and 1900s.
- Shingle Creek - Earlier known both as Rivière aux Serpens and Beaver Creek. It gets its present name from the fact that early settlers cut their shingles from the cedars growing along this stream.
- With permission from G.P.V and Helen B. Akrigg 1997 British Columbia Place Names. UBC Press.
Address of this page: http://bc.ruralroutes.com/Penticton