Walhachin, British Columbia
Walhachin is a small ghost town in the Thompson Country region of British Columbia, Canada. It is located about 10 km west of Kamloops Lake, and is 65 km west of Kamloops on the south shore of the Thompson River near Highway 1. The population is about 100 and the postal code is V0K 2P0.
In its heyday, from 1909 until 1914, this historic town was an affluent colony of English settlers and was often termed "Canada's Camelot".
Walhachin was first named "Pennie's", after the original settler, Charles Pennie. But the true saga of Walhachin would begin in 1907 when Charles Barnes, an American entrepreneur, was working as a land surveyor at Ashcroft and visited Pennie's ranch and admired his 2-acre (8,100 m2) orchard. Despite the fact that Walhachin lies in the center of British Columbia's dry belt and has an average annual rainfall of less than 20 cm, Barnes envisioned thousands of acres of lush orchards and an elegant community of gentlemen farmers, primarily members of the English upper-class and . For financial backing of this grand vision he contacted a company in England, the British Columbia Development Association, who had already invested in several British Columbia properties including the ranch at 111 Mile House on the Cariboo Road. Barnes invited Sir William Bass, and an agriculturist and an engineer to come view the property. The men endorsed Barnes' plan and reported back to the BCDA that the land was a good investment and on January 21, 1908, they purchased the Pennie Ranch and an additional 930-acre (3.8 km2) parcel for $200 an acre for a total of $229,400. The BCDA then created two subsidiary companies, the British Columbia Horticultural Estates Limited to market the 10-acre (40,000 m2) plots of farmland, and the Dry Belt Settlement Utilities Limited to market lots on the 50-acre (200,000 m2) townsite. Charles Barnes became the manager of BC Horticultural Estates Ltd and purchased an additional 3,265 acres (13.21 km2) from the Dominion Government for a dollar an acre.
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