To celebrate 60 years of CHBC, we’ve dipped into the archives to look back at how the last six decades have shaped Vernon into the city it is today.
In 1957, when the station came on air, Vernon was a quiet agricultural town. With almost 9,000 inhabitants, it was the biggest community in the valley.
However, it was also on the cusp of change.
“All the boom that was happening in the rest of Canada was finally trickling down here and suddenly an Eaton’s was about to open, we got a Dairy Queen and that was huge news,” explained Gabriel Newman, the education coordinator for the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives.
Then came the completion of the Trans Canada Highway at Rogers Pass in 1962.
“What changed everything was Rogers Pass opened up and transportation became a lot more accessible to people,” said Newman.
That brought more tourists to the area.
“People realized this is a really nice place to live and then the population exploded,” said Newman.
The opening of Silver Star in 1958 added to Vernon’s appeal as a tourist destination.
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“A chalet was built and then they started having these great big ski weeks and ski trains coming to town and that brought a ton of people here,” said Newman.
The sixties were a boom time in Vernon. It was the decade that brought enduring traditions like the modern version of the Vernon Winter Carnival.
However, over the decades, transportation to Kelowna has become easier, particularly with the opening of the Coquihalla Highway and the connector between 1986 and 1990.
The Greater Vernon area has expanded and over the years the community has lost landmarks like the Polson Park grandstand, which burned down in 2006, and the National Hotel. However, the area has also gained new ones like the preformaing arts centre and Kal Tire Place, both completed in 2001.
However, they say the only constant is change. And as things keep changing, Global Okanagan will continue to document Vernon’s stories.
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