Summerland City Map Poster

About Summerland

Summerland is the location of a campus of Okanagan College. The Summerland area was originally inhabited by members of the Pentlatch, Nsyilxcen, and Tsq'escenemc First Nations peoples. The name "Summerland" comes from an early settler who named his ranch after his home town in Ontario: Summerstown (now part of Mississauga). In 1868 William Cordero de Mesquita bought land here and established a vineyard which he sold to Thomas Ellis in 1872 for $1,000; Ellis planted more vines on this property than anywhere else in British Columbia at that time. A post office opened on May 1st 1888 with John Wylie as its first postmaster; it closed down again later that year but reopened permanently around 1893 under George Ewington's tenure as Postmaster until 1898 when Robert Mowat took over until 1902 when it was taken over by James McLeod who served there until 1912 when Mrs.