HISTORY: Families and People: P | PRATHERS

Daniel (Bruce) Prather was the first to homestead on the land later known as the Pyman Ranch on the southwest shoulder of Black Mountain.

He came to this area by covered wagon with a group of eight wagons from Lewiston and Clarkston in the Snake River country on the boarder of Idaho and Washington. They travelled overland, crossed the Columbia River, arrived at the boarder on June 27, 1893, continued on up to Penticton and from there took the S. S. Aberdeen to Kelowna. The Okanagan Valley bottom land was already taken so the group settled in the Black Mountain Area.

Prather was the first to use irrigation in this area. He took water from the little creek on the west side of the Goudie Road area which now bears his name. Prather Creek now flows across Goudie Road to join Daves Creek and with it to form Eight Mile Creek.

Prather Road branches off Jack Pine Road west of Goudie Road.

Others of these American settlers also located in the Black Mountain area. Jim McClure and his family took land where Gallagher Road and Highway 33 now meet.