Originally known to the First Nations of the Okanagan Valley as Khiluk, which was- and remains today revered as a sacred site producing therapeutic waters. During World War I the minerals of Spotted Lake were used in manufacturing ammunition. Later the area came under the control of the Ernest Smith Family, for a term of about 40 years. In 1979 Smith attempted to create interest in a spa at the lake. The First Nations responded with an effort to buy the lake; in October 2001 they finally struck a deal. First Nations arranged the purchase of 22 hectares of land for a total of $720,000, and contributed about 20% of the cost. The Indian Affairs Department paid the remainder.

Israeli magician Hezi Dean stands atop of a tower where he intends to remain for 35 hours, at Rabin square on May 18, 2011 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Dean started his most recent stunt Wednesday in an attempt to break the record of American illusionist and endurance artist David Blaine. Dean was raised on the 27-meters high tower Wednesday morning and aims to remain there with no food until Thursday evening, for a total of 35-hours. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty images)

A man paddles a makeshift boat along a flooded street in Guasdualito, in the state of Apure, Venezuela, July 4, 2015. A total of 9,000 families have been affected by the overflowing of rivers Arauca and Sarare in Guasdualito, Apure state, because of the heavy rains in recent days in this area of the country, local media reported. (Photo by Carlos Eduardo Ramirez/Reuters)

Mikhail Vasilenko, a participant from the Siberian town of Nizhny Tagil, works on an ice sculpture called “The Predator”, on the last day of the annual international festival of snow and ice sculptures “The Magical Ice of Siberia”, with the air temperature at about minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18.4 degrees Fahrenheit), in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, January 17, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Despite the high winds and fright temperatures, about 1/2 dozen brave members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club took a dip in the Atlantic Ocean at March 14, 2017, just of Stillwell avenue in Coney Island beach in Brooklyn NYC. (Photo by Paul Martinka)

A leader “Rolli” of a yodel group “Schuppel” runs in the snow in front of a farmstead during the “Silvesterchlausen” in the early morning in Urnaesch in the Swiss canton Appenzell Ausserroden on January 13, 2017. (Photo by Michael Buholzer/AFP Photo)

A vintage car sits in flood water on March 20, 2019 in Hamburg, Iowa. Although flood water in the town has started to recede many homes and businesses remain surrounded by water. Several Midwest states are battling some of the worst flooding they have experienced in decades as rain and snow melt from the recent “bomb cyclone” has inundated rivers and streams. At least three deaths have been linked to the flooding. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Young cheetahs eat meat at The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) center in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, on August 13, 2013. The CCF started breeding Anatolian livestock dogs to promote cheetah-friendly farming after some 10,000 big cats – the current total worldwide population – were killed or moved off farms in the 1980s. Up to 1,000 cheetahs were being killed a year, mostly by farmers who saw them as livestock killers. But the use of dogs has slashed losses for sheep and goat farmers and led to less retaliation against the vulnerable cheetah. (Photo by Jennifer Bruce/AFP Photo)