THE UPPER RANCH

Located three kilometres north of Radium Hot Springs, B.C. The Upper Ranch is one of the historical ranches of the Columbia Valley. In 1886, John McKay with three of his sons, Jock, James and Cham drove their cattle and horses overland from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan to the Columbia Valley where James L. McKay had purchased 15,000 acres of Crown land from the BC. Government. Named "Elk Park Ranch" the property stretched along the Columbia Wet Lands from Sinclair (Radium) to Luxor (Spur Valley). McKay senior, John, took an acreage just to the north of Sinclair Creek. This property became known as Sinclair or 'Upper Ranch'. The other ranch at Luxor became 'Lower Ranch', which was homesteaded by Cham. These ranches made up the McKay Estate.