Morrissey's Camp

Morrissey’s camp is located just past Ruth Station.

Although this site was hidden for almost 100 years, overgrown with underbrush, the same fire that destroyed the trestles in 2003 did us one favour: it revealed this camp.

Fire fighters mopping up the fire discovered the rock ovens. They contacted the Myra Canyon Trestle Restoration Society (MCTRS) which had long had an interest in anything associated with the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) in Myra Canyon.

As a result MCTRS joined with the University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus in 2007 and sponsored an historical archaeological dig here.

The information panels on signs detail what life was like in the camp, one of seven construction camps in the Myra Canyon area. Typically named for the railway contractors responsible for the work, this one took its name from E. A. Morrissey, a Spokane, Washington–based contractor.

The camp itself was likely established in September or October 1912 and remained active into 1914. Many of its workers were Italian, well known for skilled, mortarless stonework, work reflected in the many rock walls that support the railbed and trestle abutments as well as the several baking ovens found in camps.

Men worked year-round in all weather. Theirs’ was a life of hard manual labour, minimal pay, and isolation in distant locations like Myra Canyon.

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