March 21, 2026
Taxis are a familiar sight in Vernon today, but their story began long before cars. In the early days, most travel in the valley was by horseback, train, or steamship. Livery stables acted as the town’s transportation hubs, providing horses for hire and a place to board animals, long before motor vehicles arrived.
At a livery, locals could hire a horse or a team of horses for a short time, board their own animals, and purchase essentials such as hay, grain, coal, and wood. While these stables were vital to the town, they were not always popular. They could be noisy, smelly, and sometimes attracted vermin. Yet without them, early Vernon would have struggled to move people and goods efficiently.
The first livery in Vernon is believed to have opened in 1891. The Vernon Livery was located at the corner of 34th Street and 31st Avenue. By 1909, the town supported three livery businesses, and by 1912, the daily rate for a work team and driver was $7, similar to rates in Kamloops and Revelstoke.
One notable figure in Vernon’s livery history was George Minty. He established his own stable in 1910 after working as a teamster for another operator. That same year, he purchased a new landau carriage for the considerable sum of $1,100 and two pure white horses to pull it. Known as the Minty Coach, it transported dignitaries and wedding parties around Vernon. Today, the coach is preserved and displayed at the Vernon Museum.
By the early 1900s, the automobile had begun to arrive, slowly changing transportation. Vernon’s first automobile livery is believed to have started around 1905, though it took another decade to gain traction. By 1917, companies including the Megaw Motor Co. and Watkin Motors were offering cars with drivers for hire, marking Vernon’s first real step toward modern taxi service.
In 1924, a “drive-yourself” auto livery was introduced, an early version of car rentals. The term taxi finally appeared in Vernon in the 1920s when the Vernon Garage launched a formal service. Even then, Vernon was keeping pace with global trends. The first motorized taxicab with a taximeter began operating in Germany in 1897, and gasoline-powered taxicabs appeared in New York in 1907.
From horse-drawn carriages to motorized cars, Vernon’s transportation steadily evolved. What began with livery stables gradually became the car services and taxis we recognize today, reflecting the town’s practical adaptation to new technology over time.
Archives Manager, Gwyneth Evans