Louis Christien (1835-1911) discovered gold in Cherry Creek in 1862
Lumby became an incorporated village on December 22, 1955, over ninety years after the first white settler, Louis Christien, arrived in the area.
Had it not been for the discovery of gold in Cherry Creek in 1862, the history of Lumby may have been quite different. Many of the men who came west to make their fortune in the Cherryville gold fields chose to stay in Lumby.
In 1892, Louis Morand bought 40 acres of land from Quinn Faulkner and laid out the new town site. The new town site was named 'Lumby' after Moses Lumby, the government agent for the area from 1891 to 1893.
Today, Lumby's population is in excess of 1,800, with another 6,000 people living in the surrounding area.
Moses Lumby (1840-1893) came to British Columbia in 1861. He was one of the most ardent campaigners to have the railway extended into the Okanagan valley. Moses became the area’s Government Agent in 1892 following the death of Walter Dewdney.
Moses died of typhoid fever in Victoria on October 23, 1893. In 1894, the year following Moses Lumby’s death, Louis Morand and Quinn Faulkner (who laid out the original townsite of Lumby), officially changed the name of the new townsite from White Valley to Lumby.
Entrance to Lumby, looking East
In 1908, there were only 17 buildings in Lumby: 2 hotels, a boarding house, two blacksmith shops, a general store, a post office and 11 homes.