Summerland once had a slaughterhouse on the eastern side of Giant’s Head Mountain.
The site was first used as a community skating rink, built in 1909 on a site owned by James Ritchie. He was the reeve, councillor, postmaster and president of the Garnet Valley Land Company.
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The large concrete pad used for the skating rink was later converted into a meat processing plant.
The slaughterhouse was operated by Laurie C. Woodworth ( 1877-1916). He supplied meat to the railway camps when the Kettle Valley Railway was being built. Near the building was the Woodworth Gulch, used to drive cattle. The entrance to the gulch can be found at the base of Milne Road, close to Giants Head Road.
Woodworth, a Nova Scotia butcher, arrived in Summerland in 1910. He and his brother, Vancouver lawyer C.M. Woodworth, purchased numerous properties in Summerland.
In 1912, L.C. Woodworth leased the property from Ritchie for one year and continued to operate it as a skating rink. The next year, he purchased the rink and built the slaughterhouse.
The processed meat from this slaughterhouse was sold to Naramata, Penticton and other lake points.
In April 1914, he was awarded a contract to provide meat to the railway construction crew on the Kettle Valley Railway. When this contract was unexpectedly terminated in early January 1915, Woodworth was forced to sell his business.
In September 1915, Woodworth leased his former property and resumed his business once again.
He was killed in a hunting accident on Shingle Creek Road on Sept. 12, 1916.
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