Kelowna City Map Poster

About Kelowna

Kelowna is also the location of the headquarters of many major corporations, including Air Canada, Cascades Inc., Canfor Corporation, CP Rail and Encana. The city has a large technology sector that employs thousands of people; several startups are based in Kelowna.The name "Kelowna" was chosen by residents from a total of 522 names submitted as part an entry to a local competition sponsored by the Kelowna Chamber Of Commerce in 1946. It is named after Lake Okanagan which it borders (the lake itself was given its current name in 1846). Its first inhabitants were Syilx (or Shuswap) First Nations peoples who migrated into this region from their ancestral home on the Columbia River Plateau hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago via land bridges that existed during periods when lower sea levels had exposed what are now islands along with connecting channels between them and surrounding lakes such as Okanagan Lake.[12] They lived off plentiful game and fish resources.