History
This area was originally known as “Kumsheen” or “Camchin” in the local Nlaka’pamux language, meaning “where the rivers meet”. The Interior Salish First Nations people, including the Lytton First Nation, Siska, Skuppah, Kanaka Bar and Nicomen Indian Band, have lived on the banks of these rivers for about 10,000 years. In 1858, gold was discovered in the Nicomen River (ten miles north-east of Lytton, which was known at that time as “The Forks”). The population of the area was flooded overnight with prospectors and miners determined to discover the precious stone. In the same year, Lytton was renamed after the British Colonial Secretary, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Bulwer-Lytton was a bestselling novelist of his time, whose literary claims to fame include the coining of the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword”.