Osoyoos, BC, Town, pop 4752 (2006c), 4295 (2001c), inc 1946. Osoyoos is located on Osoyoos Lake, 60 km south of Penticton in the OKANAGAN VALLEY. Soyoos ("where two lakes meet") was an Okanagan name. Hudson's Bay Co brigades passed here 1812-48. The British Columbia GOLD RUSHES helped open the area. A customs house was placed at the narrows in 1865. Customs collector John Carmichael Haynes, justice of the peace for Osoyoos and Kootenay districts, was a pioneer settler at Osoyoos and accumulated 8900 ha of land for a cattle and horse ranch. The first commercial orchard was established nearby in 1890. The South Okanagan Irrigation Project brought an irrigation canal to the area by 1919.