Savona (originally Savona's Ferry) is a small community located at the west end of Kamloops Lake, where the Thompson River exits it. It is approximately halfway between Kamloops and Cache Creek along the Trans-Canada Highway. The surrounding the community is semi-arid grasslands and hills supporting cattle ranching and agriculture.
History
Savona was originally located on the north shore of Kamloops Lake, where it was the end of the stagecoach line from Cache Creek on the Cariboo Wagon Road. Originally passengers continuing on had to take the steamboat up the lake to Kamloops and the Shuswap Country and the goldfields of the Big Bend of the Columbia River until a man named Savona started a ferry across the river at that location. A road was later built along the south side of Kamloops Lake to Kamloops, British Columbia.
In 1884 Savona was the eastern end of Andrew Onderdonk's contract for building the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) for the Canadian government. Onderdonk continued building eastward under a CPR contract. Because the railway was on the south side of the river, most of the houses were pulled across the lake on the ice, moving the community to where it is today. In 1915, the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway, now part of Canadian National Railway was built along the north side of Kamloops Lake.
The Savona area is the home of the Skeetchestn Indian Band. Their main reserve, Skeetchestn Indian Reserve, comprising 7975.70 ha., is located on the north side of the Thompson west of Savona, and reaching up the valley of the Deadman River.[1]
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