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The SS Sicamous is a restored 1914 sternwheeler steamship that once carried passengers, fruit, and cargo the length of Okanagan Lake, calling at Kelowna and other lakeside communities along its Penticton-to-Okanagan Landing route. Retired in 1936, it is preserved today as a heritage museum on the Okanagan Lake shoreline in Penticton, at the opposite end of the lake from Kelowna.
Visitor guide
The SS Sicamous is a restored Canadian Pacific Railway sternwheeler that now sits on the lakeshore in Penticton, at the south end of Okanagan Lake, as a museum ship and heritage park. It is one of the best-preserved reminders of the era when the lake, not a highway, was the Okanagan's main route.
Construction began in September 1913 at Okanagan Landing, near Vernon, and the ship was launched on 19 May 1914. Her steel hull, engine and boiler were prefabricated in Port Arthur, Ontario, and shipped west on 17 railcars, then assembled by about 150 workers, according to the museum society. Wikipedia lists her length at about 200 feet (61 m) and her top speed at 18 knots, and the boiler could burn up to 17 tons of coal a day. On launch she could carry up to 500 passengers, with about 30 overnight rooms, and the crew numbered around 31 to 33.
The Sicamous ran between Penticton and Okanagan Landing, leaving Penticton early in the morning daily except Sunday and making about 14 scheduled stops, with the full trip taking roughly eight hours, per the society. Calls included Kelowna, Peachland and smaller lakeside communities. Cargo included fruit, vegetables, livestock, machinery and mail. She connected with the Canadian Pacific mainline through Okanagan Landing and later with the Kettle Valley Railway at Penticton.
She was converted mainly to cargo use in 1935, with her upper passenger deck removed and capacity cut to about 260. Sources differ on the end of service: the museum society says she was retired in 1936 after 22 years, while Wikipedia mentions a final run in August 1937 for the Penticton Gyro Club. The safest summary is that she left regular service in the mid-to-late 1930s.
She sat at Okanagan Landing for over a decade. In 1949 the Penticton Gyro Club approached the city about using her as a clubhouse, and she was bought from the CPR. In August 1951 she was pushed to Penticton by the tug MV Okanagan. Wikipedia says the club paid one dollar. Heritage records say she was used as a museum and later a restaurant, with the exact museum years differing between sources, and in 1988 the SS Sicamous Restoration Society was formed to save her. She reopened as a museum in 1989, and the Canadian Register of Historic Places records formal recognition in 1989; she is a municipally designated heritage site, not, according to the sources checked, a national historic site.
The ship is part of the S.S. Sicamous Marine Heritage Park, alongside the SS Naramata, a CN tugboat and a section of the SS Okanagan. The cargo deck houses an HO-scale model railway. Exhibits, tours and event access change, so check the society for current hours, tickets and access.
Penticton is a substantial drive south from Kelowna along the lake. A private vehicle and driver with door-to-door pickup makes it practical to combine the ship with the Naramata Bench wine road or the Kettle Valley rail-trail without driving yourself.
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