Fairview Townsite, west of Oliver
The 1890s held high hopes for the lode gold of mines such as Stemwinder, Morning Star, and Rattler. By 1902 when the Fairview Hotel or 'Big Teepee' burned, the golden years were over. Fairview’s population shrank as miners left for other prospects. Some settlers, lured by the natural attractions of the Okanagan Valley remained to profit from the lasting wealth of its resources.
The site of Fairview is two miles west of Oliver, but little remains to suggest its former prominence. It began in 1887 when the Stemwinder mining claim was staked and the first gold mine, the Rattler, opened in 1888. By 1892 10 mines were in full operation and stamp mills were built to separate gold from the quartz. The Fairview post office opened in 1892 and the townsite plan was registered in 1897. Eventually the town boasted a population of 1000. Among the town’s many hotels was the Big Teepee, reputedly the finest in the Okanagan.
Just north of Fairview sits a 3000 acre deposit of coal which was sold in 1901 to a Toronto syndicate, but was never developed. Fairview was a gold town, and when the most important mine, the Stemwinder, closed in 1904, the town closed also. Most of the buildings were moved to Oliver. The old jail was one of the townsite’s last standing structures, but due to vandalism it was also moved into Oliver. The former Presbyterian Church was moved to Okanagan Falls and now serves as a United Church, but a cross at Fairview marks its original site. Among the gravestones in the small cemetery is that of Andrew McCulloch, the engineer who was the driving force behind construction of much of the Kettle Valley Railway.
In the 1930s some of the people who still owned claims at Fairview were bought out by large mining companies who were planning to start mining again, but the revival never materialized. Cominco later bought much of the land around the town and used the quartz as a flux in its smelter at Trail.
