Okanagan Mission (The Mission).

How Okanagan Mission (The Mission) took shape

Okanagan Mission, or The Mission, is Kelowna's south side district, named for the Oblate mission Father Charles Pandosy started in 1859 near Mission Creek. It had a post office from 1872, stayed outside the city until 1973, and grew from ranches and orchards into lakeside Lower Mission and hillside Upper Mission.

The Mission takes its name from the Mission of the Immaculate Conception, which Oblate priests Charles Pandosy and Pierre Richard started in 1859 near a creek fur traders called L'Anse au Sable. Sources give 1859 or 1860 for the move to its present site, and the creek was renamed Mission Creek in its honour. It became the first permanent settler community in the Okanagan Valley. At its height the mission spanned about 2,000 acres of orchard, vineyard, garden and range, and it served both Indigenous and settler communities. The Oblates moved their headquarters to Kamloops in 1896. A post office opened at Mission Creek in 1872, with Eli Lequime as postmaster, and was renamed Okanagan Mission in 1905.

Ranches, orchards and lakeside retreats spread across the district, including the Casorso ranch of 1884 and the Eldorado Arms of 1926, while Kelowna's limits stopped at KLO Road. In 1973 the province folded Okanagan Mission, Rutland and Glenmore into a greater Kelowna. Okanagan Mission Secondary opened in 1978, subdivisions climbed the benches, and people began to talk about a Lower and an Upper Mission. The hillside suburbs faced their hardest test in August 2003, when the Okanagan Mountain Park fire burned homes in Crawford Estates, Kettle Valley, Okaview, Timberline and along Lakeshore Road. The district rebuilt, opened Canyon Falls Middle School in 2019 and broke ground on the Mission Activity Centre in 2026. On Benvoulin Road, the provincial heritage site designated in 1983 still keeps the mission chapel, root house and Brothers' House where they first stood.

1. 1872A post office opens at Mission Creek on October 1 with Eli Lequime as postmaster. Source
2. 1905The post office spelling changes to Okanagan Mission. Source

The homes & their setting

Early farms and lakeside properties gave way to suburbs after amalgamation: 1970s and 1980s ranchers and split levels in the Lower Mission, hillside view homes and executive estates in the Upper Mission from the 1980s on, and townhomes and resort style condos near the lake. Detached freehold homes dominate, with some bare land strata on the hills.

Building age, tenure, amenities and permitted uses vary by address. Explore the actual property documents with Elaine and the appropriate specialists.

Places with a story

• Father Pandosy Mission, 3685 Benvoulin Road — A four acre provincial heritage site since 1983 with nineteenth century log buildings, three of them on their original spots. History source
• Okanagan Mission Community Hall — A barn style hall built with donated labour in 1937 and 1938 at Lakeshore and DeHart roads. History source