The Village of Lumby, Province of British Columbia, Canada is situated in the North Okanagan, but geographically, in the watershed of the Shuswap - Thompson - Fraser Rivers system. It is twenty five kilometres east of Vernon on Highway Six.

The Gold Range, to the east of Lumby, was officially changed to Monashee Mountains in 1918. Monashee comes from the Gaelic Monadh-sith, "mountain of peace". The name was given in about 1881 by Donald McIntyre, the highlander who first staked the Monashee Mines.

Village of Lumby

Although the village was incorporated in 1956, its history dates back to 1893 when the town site of forty acres was surveyed and named "Lumby". Prior to that, the small settlement of pioneer farmers and gold miners lived in White Valley, whose beginning commenced with the Cherry Creek gold strike in 1862.

In 1848 gold was discovered in California. The news spread like wildfire, bringing hordes of men from the far flung corners of the globe seeking instant riches. They suffered untold hardship to reach the gold fields, only to find on arrival that gold was not, as they expected, lying on the surface of the ground waiting to be pocketed. Mining was rough, dangerous, competitive, exhausting work.Fortunes were made, but most were lost overnight in wild celebrations of the find. No matter. There was always hope of a richer lode the next day or the day after. For many that day never came. In the mid - 1850's, with the decline of the gold fields, thousands of men were stranded.

In 1858 stories of rich gold strikes on the Fraser River in British Columbia, brought 25,000 men from San Francisco to Victoria.

Under a two hundred year old charter, the Hudson's Bay Company controlled all territory west of Red River. By the Oregon Boundary Treaty of 1846, British sovereignty was recognised above the 49th parallel. This prevented invasion of Canada by American settlers pouring into Oregon. To give emphasis to the Canadian claim, in 1851 Vancouver Island was declared a Crown Colony with James (later Sir) Douglas appointed as governor. In 1866 the Vancouver Island Colony was united with the Colony of British Columbia and in 1871 the combined colonies became the Province of B.C.