School Days and Bears

Whenever the construction of the Whistler Village is talked about, it is invariably mentioned that the Village was built on a dump. This is often followed by stories about the bears seen at the landfill site.

The Alta Lake District Ratepayers Association applied to lease some acres of Crown land at the base of northern Whistler Mountain in the early 1960s in order to create a central dumping location for the residents of Alta Lake. The Valleau Logging Company donated their time and equipment to dig and cover the ditches and different residents helped tidy up the site on a weekly basis. This was not, however, enough to keep the local bear population out of the garbage. While the dump was relocated before the Village construction began, it was still in its original location when the first Myrtle Philip School (MPS) was built in 1976, causing some concerns for parents.

In April 1976, the MPS was nearing completion and was expected to be ready for community use during the summer before classes started in September. That same month, Roger Griffin was appointed as the principal. In May, however, a letter was sent to Whistler’s council from Roberta Carson expressing concern regarding the presence of bears near the school. The council advised that plans were underway to relocate the dump as early as the end of May but that they would monitor the situation and if bears were still frequenting the area by July further action would have to be taken, such as the creation of a fenced in play area for the students.

MPS was not the only building located in the dump area in 1976; the liquor store and municipal offices were also located in portable buildings near the site. Bears were so common in the area that spring hat the deer crossing signs on the highway were reportedly replaced by signs reading “Watch for Bear on Road” (though these signs also reportedly went missing soon after their installation). In early May, the Whistler Question wrote about a bear on the side of the road near the school and reminded people not to stop their cars in order to watch the bear.

By June, council member John Hetherington reported for the Garbage Committee that a new location off of the Cheakamus Lake road had been approved on a temporary basis and the clean up of the old site had been put out to tender. By July, the dump site near the school was officially closed, though that didn’t stop some people or bears from continuing to use it. That month, a bear was seen “parading” up and down the porch of the liquor store, even pawing at the door in an attempt to get in, and another was said to be “in residence” at the old dump location “being fed by those who insist on placing garbage at this site.”

By the time classes started at MPS on September 7, 1976, bear sighting in the area were less common and the students’ play area was not required to be fenced in. By the fall, however, the school was experiencing problems with a different animal as some people attending adult education classes in the evening were bringing their dogs to class with them. This prompted a public reminder that “no dogs or animals are allowed in the school at any time.”