by Win Shilvock
About 800 years after the Chinese were reputed to have been in the Okanagan Valley another myth popped up suggesting that Spaniards could also have been here.
In 1863 Isadore Boucherie was wandering along what is now Mill Creek prospecting for gold when he stumbled on the decaying remains of an ancient log building, large enough to have housed several men and horses. Little interest was aroused among the few inhabitants in the vicinity (about 25 plus several Indians) and for the next four decades the matter lay doggo. In 1902 a farmer was plowing his land near the site and turned up an ancient Spanish-type musket. The find stirred memories of the old log building and thus began the myth and mystery of a Spanish invasion of the Okanagan Valley.
To discover if, when, and why Spaniards would have had cause to come here we must go back in history to California in the middle of the 18th century. After Balboa crossed the Isthumus of Panama in 1513 and took possession of the Pacific coast for Spain, no attempt was made to explore northward until after 1763 when Great Britain and Spain divided eastern America and set the stage for westward expansion. In 1769 Spain built a mission at San Diego and later, several others, but only as far north as San Francisco Bay. It wasn't until 1774 when the British and Russians were flexing their muscle in the area of Nootka on Vancouver Island that Spain realized that decisive action was necessary if she was to maintain here hold on the Pacific. After three disastrous northern voyages of exploration ending in 1779, a final attempt was made to protect her interest and settlement was built at Nootkan in 1790. However, the pressure from Great Britain mounted, reaching a climax in 1795 with the taking over of Nootka, thus ending Spain's claim the the ownership of the Pacific.
From this little but of history we can deduce that if Spaniards did come to the Okanagan Valley it was probably some time between 1769 and 1795. This would be about right for the rotted log building found in 1863. As to why they came, it could have been a group of renegade soldiers prowling northward or more likely a troop of men sent to explore by land and lay claim to the territory for Spain in conjunction with similar attempts being made by sea.
If the second hypothesis is true, it's strange that no record of such an exploration has ever been found in any Spanish archives. However, there does not exist a record of sorts which has been found in the Similkameen Valley around Olalla and Keremeos. The Indians of the Similkameen have a legend telling that about the middle of the 18th century, before the "King George men" arrived, several white men wearing "metal" clothes and riding horses came from the south into their area. The intruders took several Indian prisoners to act as carriers and then moved east to where Penticton is now. Turning north they followed Lake Okanagan to just past an Indian village near today's Kelowna. Here they wintered in a large log building and in the spring retraced their steps southward and westward to arrive in the area where they had captured their slaves.
The Similkameen Indians had followed the intruders' movements and know their numbers had been reduced during the winter by disease and Indian hostility, so taking advantage of this the Indians attacked in force as the white men moved down the Keremeos Creek valley. After a sharp, bloody battle, the despised intruders were slaughtered to a man and along with their weapons, buried in an unmarked grave somewhere between Olalla and Keremeos. To this day the site has never been found. What has been found, however, are Indian pictographs painted on the wall of a secluded cave showing horsemen wearing apparent Spanish headgear and herding roped Indians guarded by dogs. Spaniards usually chained their captives together and guarded them with dogs.
Indian legends generally contain a considerable element of truth so there's good reason to believe this one. If white men did come from the south and they did winter near Kelowna, and they were slaughtered and buried near Keremeos, who were they? Or were they? What were they doing this far up the North American continent and about 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the mid 18th century? This group of men were quite likely Spaniards but we'll never know for sure. The rotted logs and rusty musket found by Mill Creek will continue to cause wonderment but the true story surrounding the Indian legend will no doubt remain a mystery forever.
Stan Copps of Langara College will be excavating the "Spanish Column" again this summer:
I conducted test excavations in the Fall of 1998 at the pictograph rock
shelter site often used as 'proof' of a Spanish presence. We didn't
find any evidence for 18th/19th century Spanish (or earlier), but did
recover materials dating over 4000 years old relating to Similkameen
First Nations' ancestors.
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