Dan Burton says he is fuming angry to be shut out of the park that is part of his daily routine. Burton likes to walk in the park with his camera and photograph birds, wildlife and nature. (Richard McGuire photo)
Many Osoyoos residents are angry about the indefinite closure of Haynes Point Provincial Park and some say they plan to defy orders to stay out.
Local residents were surprised Wednesday when they arrived at the park for their daily walk and were turned away by an official from BC Parks.
“I’m fuming. I’m so upset,” said Oleander Drive resident Dan Burton on Wednesday morning. “I come down here every morning for my walk. I’m known to be with a camera at all times. Today it’s come to an end.”
Wednesday’s closure surprised many local residents even though the BC Ministry of Environment and the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) issued a joint news release on May 22 indicating that the park would be closed effective Oct. 1 for camping and day use.
The entire park, including the boat launch, is closed to allow archaeologists to do a survey of the park grounds as the result of the discovery in April of human bones. The discovery suggested the park might have contained an aboriginal burial site.
An information sheet released by the province and the OIB on Thursday, the day after the closure, states the park will not reopen after the archaeological survey is complete.
Rather, the sheet says the province and OIB “are committed to making every effort to ensure park visitors have more information on the park closure in 2015.”
Mark Weston, Okanagan section head with BC Parks, said the ground survey is expected to last to around the end of October and is time sensitive because it must be done before the ground freezes.
BC Parks hopes to be able to provide the public with information about the archaeological assessment early in 2015, he said.
The park, however, will remain closed while the province holds management discussions with the OIB on the park’s future, he added.
“The park will be closed beyond the field component of the project,” he said. “I expect some information about the assessment to be available early in 2015 and then our management discussions will be occurring early in the year. I’m not sure when we will be able to make an announcement about the results of those discussions. It really will be driven by the information that is going to be collected over the next month.”
Weston declined to comment on the nature of the bones discovered in April and would not say whether it was a single bone, several bones, a complete skeleton or multiple skeletons.
“I don’t think I’ll comment on that right now,” he said. “The ancestral remains were found and a portion of those were radiocarbon dated to about 1,224 years ago.”
This is older than the first Norse settlement in Newfoundland 1,000 years ago and is long before any Europeans arrived in B.C., leading to the conclusion that the bones are those of aboriginal ancestors.
Weston, who was at the park gate Wednesday and Thursday turning people away, said most people understood when he explained the reasons for the closure.
“I’d say the majority of people – now that we’ve been able to provide some information – have been understanding,” he said. “But I get the sense that they’ll be following the issue fairly closely to see the outcomes.”
Weston acknowledged there have been some “very upset people,” but said there were no incidents beyond that.
“We continue to appreciate the public’s co-operation in complying with the park closure right now and allowing the archaeological field crew to get their work done,” said Weston. “Voluntary compliance is a much preferred scenario here.”
Nonetheless, several residents have told the Osoyoos Times they plan to continue using the park.
Initially, Burton said he was looking into whether he could continue entering the park if he stayed on the shoreline below the high-water level.
When he returned to the park at around 7 a.m. on Thursday for his daily walk, however, there were no BC Parks employees and the sign warning people not to enter had been removed. So he continued his walk.
“I just think it’s silly because they say the reason is so that we don’t do any damage to where they’re digging,” said Burton. “That’s not where we’re walking. We’re walking on the road.”
Although Burton intends to keep taking his walks, he said he’s not looking for a confrontation.
“I’m not going to push it to the point where I get myself arrested,” he said. “That would just be stupid on my part. So if they win, they win. To me it’s a sad state of affairs.”
Some people turned away when told the park was closed without protesting.
While Weston was being interviewed, a couple with an Alberta license plate drove up. When he told them the park was closed, they thanked him and willingly turned around. Out-of-town visitors are less concerned than locals about the park being closed, Weston admitted.
Others, however, were polite to BC Parks officials, but were angry nonetheless.
Shirley Cryderman, a senior who lives south of Osoyoos near the U.S. border, brought her cockapoo dog Barney for their regular walk only to find the park closed.
“I feel it’s rotten,” she said. “Why can’t we walk in? We’re not going to hurt anything. I’ve done it for 40 years.”
Nonetheless, she doesn’t plan to take her complaints further.
“I did complain to this gentleman (Weston), but it doesn’t work,” she said.
John Gibbon and Anne MacWilliam live a few houses away and walk in the park every day, taking 45 minutes from their door walk to the end of the point and back.
“We’ve been half expecting it (the closure) because of what went on in the spring,” said Gibbon referring to the bone discovery. “Nobody gave us a true answer.”
MacWilliam said BC Parks should have given more advance notice.
“There’s been no information, which has led to rumours and now has led to surprise,” she said Wednesday. “I thought the gate might be closed with someone allowing the remaining campers to leave and tomorrow I expected a chain on it. But that shouldn’t prevent us from walking on the road.”
Now, the couple said they would have to do their walk on town streets, which won’t be nearly as enjoyable.
Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells said he wasn’t informed in advance of the extent of the closure, although he knew it would be closed. Nor does he believe there was adequate communication with the public.
Wells, however, has taken an earful from upset residents, even though the park is under provincial jurisdiction and the town has no authority over it.
“It’s not going to fly,” said Wells. “People are upset.”
Several residents have asked him whether the province can keep local residents from walking on the shoreline.
“If it’s for the duration of the dig, I’m not happy with it, but it’s tolerable,” said Wells. “If it’s going to be long or forever, that’s not tolerable.”
The town, he said, wants to see the status quo with the campsite open, residents able to walk in the park and with access to the boat launch.
The campsites, he said provide economic spinoffs for the community. Local people want to be able to use the park throughout the winter on a walk-in basis.
Bob Hyslop, who drives to the park every day to walk his miniature dachshund, visited the Osoyoos Times to say he was “extremely upset” and is especially angry that officials didn’t respond to letters of inquiry before the closure.
“We are elderly people that walk our dogs and walk for exercise,” said Hyslop. “How that interferes with archaeologists doing their game I have no idea.”
Hyslop said it’s by no means conclusive that Haynes Point was an aboriginal burial site.
“Where the bones may have come from is very much open contention,” he said. “Large areas of that park have been filled over the years with material from mine sites, road sites and other construction areas. If there are indeed graves, I see nothing wrong with clearly marking them, but to close the park to citizens of the province is absolutely unacceptable.”
Hyslop said he is prepared to risk arrest and plans to walk in the park anyway “when I calm down.”
He dismissed the suggestion that the province could prosecute walkers for trespassing.
“How can you trespass on your own property,” Hyslop asked.
RICHARD McGUIRE Osoyoos Times
In this file photo from May, Mario Hall sifts carefully through sand and dirt excavated at Haynes Point in the hopes of finding artifacts. The excavation has resumed now that the camping season is over and the park is closed. (Richard McGuire file photo)
