Rauhala Ramblers: O'Keefe Ranch, Vernon, B.C. Victorian Christmas

I took my grand daughter and her friend to see O'Keefe ranch decorated for Christmas. We enjoyed the decorations, the wagon ride and the carol singing in the mansion and in the church.

Ranch History

The Ranch was founded in 1867, and in its earliest days was at the end of the wagon road into the Okanagan Valley and the site of the stage coach depot. It was a small, self-contained community, with a Post Office, blacksmith shop, grist mill, and even its own church and cemetery. Many of the original buildings still exist, and are a delight to explore.

The Historic O’Keefe Ranch is as old as Canada. It was founded in 1867 by Cornelius O’Keefe, who was born near Ottawa in 1838, of Irish immigrant parents.

Cornelius came west in his early 20’s and began to drive cattle from Oregon to provide food for the gold miners in the north. He camped on the site of the Ranch, and decided to raise cattle rather than drive them from Oregon. Cornelius pre-empted 161 acres of land. By the early 1900’s, with Thomas Greenhow, a business partner, the ranch had grown to 15,000 acres. As well as cattle, the ranch produced large quantities of grain.

In 1907, 12,000 acres were sold to a group of Belgians wishing to bring settlers to the area. Cornelius O’Keefe died in 1919, and his second wife, Elizabeth in1929. The ranch continued to be operated by his youngest son Tierney and his wife Betty until 1967, at which time they decided, as the ranch was as old as Canada, to preserve it as part of Canadian history. they restored and rebuilt the original ranch buildings and opened the Historic O'Keefe Ranch in 1967, exactly 100 years after Cornelius O'Keefe had arrived on the site.