[1][2] He founded the Okanagan Mission which was the first permanent white settlement in the British Columbia Interior aside from the forts for the Hudson's Bay Company and the gold rush boomtowns of the Fraser Canyon.

[1][4][5] Towards the end of 1846, Eugène de Mazenod, the founder of the O.M.I., granted the request of two Pacific Northwest bishops (Augustin-Magloire Blanchet of Walla Walla, Washington and Modeste Demers of Vancouver Island) to send Oblate missionaries from France to serve in their dioceses.

They arrived in New York on 2 April 1847, met Bishop Blanchet in St. Louis and reached Kansas City on 1 May 1847.

When the party arrived at Fort Hall the Bishop and a few companions went ahead to prepare lodgings and provisions for the winter.

[2][4][5] Father Pandosy and the other Oblates began by proselytizing the Yakama people in the lower valley of the Yakima River.

Father Pandosy then returned to the Yakama Indians, and convinced them to stay neutral in the Cayuse War which broke out after the massacre.

Some of these volunteers took the St. Joseph Mission and uncovered a keg of powder, leading them to believe that the priests were helping the Yakama.

Okanagan Mission had hogs, sheep, oats, barley, wheat, tobacco and potatoes.

[3] Father Pandosy's Mission was the first cemetery,[6] the first place of worship and the first school in the Southern Interior.

Father Pandosy farmed and found ways to irrigate the land so a root cellar was also built.

However, in 1885, after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway's new transcontinental line, the oblates switched their headquarters to St. Louis Mission in Kamloops.

[2] During his service in British Columbia, he established other missions, including one on Harbledown Island in 1863 which was later closed by Bishop D'Herbomez in 1874.

Location was main summer camp for Chief Kamiakin[8] In February 1891, Father Pandosy was called to Keremeos.

The site is marked by a granite boulder with a commemorative brass plaque and is located on a working farm about 400 metres north-west from the mission.

1947 saw the property sold again and it was slated for demolition but a group of volunteers rescued and restored the three original buildings on the site.