Essentially nothing remains of Fairview except several historical markers. One of the largest and most elegant hotels of the era, the Fairview Grand Hotel (nicknamed “the Big Tee-Pee”) was built and burned in just five short years. It was never rebuilt and its demise spelled the death for the town, as the gold diggings were already beginning to play out when it burned.

The site of the Presbyterian Church has been marked, but is otherwise indistinguishable from the surroundings. Constructed at Fairview in 1899, it was moved to Okanagan Falls in 1929 and is affectionately known as The Blasted Church for the method in which it was disassembled for transport. The wooden Fairview Jail, the last remnant of Fairview, was moved to the Oliver Museum in 1981.

In 1887, a prospector known as “One-Armed Reed” explored here for gold and, in 1888, two others, Gwatkin and Shehan, were Crown-granted the Stemwinder Claim. Many other interests were staked and, by 1893, Fairview (as the place became known) boasted of being “the biggest city north of San Francisco”.

Along the Gulch, close to the mines, buildings were erected and saloons, like Moffat’s, the Golden Gate, the Bucket of Blood and the Miner’s Rest served the needs of the bolstering population. Almost no food was grown in the area. Freight wagons drawn sometimes by as many as eight spans of horses, brought in cargoes for mines and the community stores. (Famous freighters were the Bassett Brothers, Hall, the Gillespies and Snodgrass).

Medical services were supplied first by, Dr. Benjamin Boyce and later by Dr. R.B. White, whose dog used to accompany him on long horseback journeys to patients throughout the Boundary Country, Osoyoos, Penticton, Hedley and the Similkameen.

By 1906, when Fairview’s gold began to play out, most miners departed for other prospects and, two years later Fairview had become a ghost town. By 1919, “the most exciting town in the West” had vanished, although mining activity revived during the Great Depression and. between 1934 and 1939, 16,992 ounces of gold and 162,680 ounces of silver flowed from these hills.