About

Our Mission

Collect, preserve, document and share the natural history and human stories of mountain life – focusing on Whistler – and provide a forum for stimulating exhibitions and programs that deepen an understanding of past choices and future possibilities.

Our History

It was the chance for a weekend get-a-way spot that spurred Florence Petersen and four friends to purchase a small cabin at Alta Lake in the mid-1950s. At the time, the valley contained a quaint summer fishing resort with only a handful of year-round residents. In the years following, the area would transform from its humble beginnings into the internationally renowned four-season resort we know today. With so much change taking place in the 1970s, Rainbow Lodge operator Myrtle Philip and Cypress Lodge operator Dick Fairhurst confessed to Florence a worry that their stories and experiences would soon be forgotten. Florence eased their fears by promising them that their stories would be remembered. True to her word, in 1986, after retiring from teaching, Florence started the Whistler Museum and Archives as a charitable non-profit society. Over thirty years later, Whistler has grown beyond the early trail-blazers’ wildest dreams and the Museum is proud to continue to collect, preserve, and tell the stories of mountain life and the people who live it.