Author’s note: I am writing an historical fiction about the Countess Bubna-Litic, one of the most remarkable women to have ever lived in Canada. She arrived in Kelowna BC in 1923 with a dream to build a destination lakeside resort hotel. The Countess was enormously wealthy and fiercely independent arriving in Kelowna with her two children. Wanting to build a magnificent hotel and being able to do that in the Kelowna of the 1920’s was not a goal without challenges. Finding a builder was one of them. The Hotel Eldorado opened in the summer of 1926.

My book is called ‘Bubna’ and will be published in 2025.

Frank Stirling and Stanley Dingham arrived in Kelowna in 1919. They’d met on the SS Aberdeen as the paddle wheeler made its way from the lake head near Vernon. They’d immediately hit it off even though Frank had fifteen years on him.  Frank had heard that Kelowna could be another boom town and that word meant opportunity for work. He’d spent ten years in Phoenix, the town that called itself a city high up in the mountains just east of Greenwood and was looking for knew opportunity.

Phoenix had been good to him. He would often have to explain that he was not talking about Phoenix Arizona as very few had heard of the Phoenix in BC near the small coal mining town of Greenwood. No this Phoenix burst into existence after copper was discovered in the late 1890’s. All of a sudden the sleepy little village high up in the mountains was home to a thousand people.  

Frank was from London originally. He had become a master builder in England and enjoyed a fine reputation for his craftsmanship but after a decade of back breaking work he didn’t even own his own home and his prospects were bleak. When he left home to emigrate he had a knapsack with a few clothes, a strong back and good hands but very little else to his name.

“Stanley, my young friend” Frank said quietly “Mark my words, this is where many a fortune will be made.” His hands swept over the land surrounding the young town of Kelowna 

“Gold, silver, copper you think?”

Stanley knew that Frank had spent a decade in Phoenix. “No Stanley, it will be the land. Whoever owns the land and understands that all you need to do is wait, wait for the future to come to you. A man’s fortune lays underfoot. I’ll show you how but you’re young so you may not have the patience you’ll need to do the waiting I speak of.“

“But you were in Phoenix, that’s where you did so well after copper was discovered.”

“Indeed I did but it was not from mining, it was from buying land and building houses and hotels and an opera house that were needed to take care of all the workers they hired.”

“Opera house? In Phoenix.”

Frank laughed. Young Stanley appeared speechless.

“Phoenix rose from the ashes. It was an extraordinary place. I was just the right man in the right place. I built an opera house, twenty hotels, a brewery and a city hall. I built so much in such a short time. Every mining town needs a hospital so I built a hospital and a banquet hall and a dance hall. The work was endless but Phoenix was out of control, as though everyone knew it couldn’t last. It was madness and not just a little lawless.”

“It’s a ghost town now from what I here.”

“Indeed my young friend. Twenty years, from nothing to nothing. All of these little towns come and go in the blink of an eye, fortunes won and lost. There was no shortage of dubious characters, they’d skin you alive if they could sell your skin.”

Frank laughed.

“Ah, the stories I can tell you. One of my closest associates was Judge Willie Williams. Now there was a good dinner companion if ever there was one. He used to declare ‘I am the highest judge, in the highest court, in the highest city in Canada.“

“We had a great hockey team as well, won the provincials in 1911. We wanted to compete for the Stanley Cup but they wouldn’t let us, said our paperwork was too late! Like hell it was, they just knew we’d have won it. Wouldn’t that have been something.”

Stanley knew none of this.

“So why did you leave Phoenix?”

“Every boom comes with a bust, my boy. The trick always is to get out just before the end. That was hard to see coming. At one point the mines in Phoenix were producing more copper than all the other copper mines in British Columbia, maybe save the mine in Rossland. But I knew it couldn’t last and indeed it didn’t, I sold everything and left Phoenix about a year before the mine shut down. When that happened it became a ghost town overnight. I was lucky.”

“How did you get so much done, wasn’t everyone working in the mines?”

“It was a big challenge Stanley but after the Kettle Valley Railway was completed in 1915 lots of Chinese workers arrived in Phoenix looking for work. They were experienced builders and I’ve never known harder workers.”

Stanley couldn’t get enough although with every story he realized he hadn’t done much living at all.

“How did you end up in Kelowna then? It’s not a boom town and there’s not much mining in these parts.”

Frank reflected before he answered.

“Well there’s a couple of things. First of all I’m no spring chicken my young friend. Theres’ a time in a man’s life to live on the edge and with the kind of energy that needs but that time comes and goes. It has for me, that’s for certain. I’d been thinking I might have to head east but then I read an advertisement in the Times of London from the Central Okanagan Land and Orchard Company.  It was calling for immigrants to come to the Okanagan and purchase hundred acre lots to grow tree fruit. It promised arable land, easy repayments and water. Nothing grows on land in these parts without irrigation and they promised irrigated land.”

“And that’s why you say land is where a man’s fortune is.”

“That’s right Stanley. Control the land, control your future. I’m convinced of it.  I have enough money to buy a few hundred acres and enough skill to put them to good use. I can build anything. Who knows maybe someone will want me to build a hotel for them.”

“Anyway, enough about me. Good Lord I’m just a builder, nothing exciting there. What about you. You’re young and your best years are ahead of you. What are your plans?”

Frank liked Stanley but he could tell he was a bit adrift searching for something but not knowing what he was searching for. He reminded him of himself at that age.

“Stanley you have a strong back and a good set of hands. If it’s work you want, that I can give you but you have to be willing to work hard. This country has endless possibilities for young men like you but it is an unforgiving country and will spit you out if you try to fool it.”

Frank was introduced to John Oliver the mayor of Oliver, a small town in the South Okanagan, at a private dinner party. The two had hit it off right away. Frank learned that Oliver had big plans for his small town and even bigger plans for his political future. He would do well to get close. When Oliver learned about his background in Phoenix his interest in this newcomer brightened.

“Might I have a word with you Mr. Stirling. I have need of a man with your background and your skills. The town of Oliver is about forty miles south of Kelowna as the crow flies. Beautiful land, fertile soil but no water and without water I can’t grow anything.”

“I understand Mr. Oliver, we had to divert water from a lake high above Phoenix. It was not an easy task with miles of flumes to build and maintain, not to mention controlling the water flow. And we had to build it from scratch, nobody had done that before.”

Oliver knew that Frank Stirling could be the missing piece for his big project.

“Well, I have managed to get the provincial government to set aside $2,000,000 to build a canal, a forty kilometre canal that will bring water to over 8,000 acres of land and with that water we can irrigate the land. I’ll  finally be able to plant tree fruit orchards and even some grapes. It’s far north for grapes but the South Okanagan is very, very hot in the summers and I have a suspicion we could make a go of wine grapes. You know we’re actually at the northern end of the North Sonaran Desert which begins way down in California. Anyway, time will tell Mr. Stirling but I’d rather die trying than not.”

“Well said Mr. Oliver. I am intrigued.”

John Oliver was good for his word. He incorporated the South Okanagan Lands Company and Frank was put in charge of the project. He proceeded with the arduous task of surveying, mapping and constructing the canal. At one point he had upwards of one hundred and fifty men working for him and with each mile of canal he could see the results the next year as once arid, inhospitable desert land turned to young orchards and vineyards before his eyes. It was very gratifying.

And rewarding. Oliver had given Frank some shares in the South Okanagan Land Company as part of his compensation for the work to be done. At the time it was a bit risky but Frank thought it was a golden opportunity. Some few years later with the canal nearly completed Frank Stirling had gained a reputation as a builder and a man who was not daunted by difficult challenges. He had also become sufficiently wealthy that he could afford to be particular about the work he did.

“Mr. Stirling it is good to finally make your acquaintance Sir.”

It was Hamish Macdonell.

“Your reputation preceeds you Sir and I must hasten to add, it is a very good one. My mistress has asked that I meet with you and well, the truth be, evaluate whether the reputation is matched by the man.”

Hamish laughed when he said it. He knew that it would be received as at best impertinent at worst disrespectful.

“Mr. Macdonell, I am not a piece of livestock to be inspected for market. My work stands for itself and my reputation has not been concocted out of whole cloth, it is forged from decades of hard work and considerable accomplishment. Forgive my bluntness, I am not used to being inspected as such.”

“Ah, Mr. Stirling I am not the least but surprised with your reaction. I would have had the same had I accumulated your lifetime of accomplishments. They stand testament to your character. My mistress, the Countess Bubna-Litic pays little heed to convention though, nor does she abide what she calls ‘dithering around the question’. That said Sir, she does wish to meet with you. She has had a dream for some time now to build a magnificent destination resort hotel on the shores of Lake Okanagan. She has picked out the site about five miles south of Kelowna and just purchased the land. Now she wants to build her hotel and that is what she wants to talk to you about.”

Stirling’s initial irritation was tempered by Hamish’s explanation.

“Yes, well I shouldn’t be angry with the messenger should I? Forgive me Hamish. I have of course heard about The Countess. She sounds like an intriguing woman and I understand she is nobody’s fool although I expect she has been called that in whispers.”

“Aye Sir, indeed but I can assure you every last one of those whispering detractors has been forced to eat their words.”

“Well then tell your mistress, that I would be pleased to meet with her.”

If you are interested to read more excerpts you might enjoy other posts on my blog http://www.tonywithacapitalt.ca

‘Bubna’, ‘Bubna: An Idea is Born’, ‘Bubna: The Guests’