Category: Museum Musings

These articles have also appeared in the Whistler Question or Pique Newsmagazine in the Whistler Museum’s weekly column.

Banking on WhistlerBanking on Whistler

May 7, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

In February 1984, a “Whistler’s Answers” feature in the Whistler Question asked residents “Are your banking transactions made overly complicated because there’s no bank in Whistler?” Before the summer of 1984, there was no permanent financial institution located in Whistler, which could make banking more difficult than usual for residents and even visitors. Over time, we’ve heard many stories about banking (or not) in Whistler at the museum, such as the race completed by Whistler Mountain employees on payday to make it to Squamish before the bank there closed.

Two of the stories we’ve hear from longtime residents concern bank robberies, both occurring at the trailer that the Bank of Nova Scotia (now known as Scotiabank) operated near the base of Whistler Mountain for a time in the 1970s. It seems that the trailer operated as part of the Pemberton branch and, though it did not offer all the services one might expect to find at a bank, local residents could cash cheques there, avoiding a drive to either Pemberton or Squamish.

Historically, quite a few Whistler services and retail operations have been located in portable buildings, such as the Liquor Store in 1980. Whistler Question Collection, 1980.

According to one tale, one or two people in Vancouver who were acquainted with some Whistler residents decided that they were going to rob the bank. They drove up the highway, went into the trailer, held up the teller (though it is unclear what, if anything, they used as a weapon), and escaped with the money, though there was apparently at least one customer who recognized them. While it might have seemed like a simple robbery to plan, the thieves forgot to make a plan to get out of Whistler. With only one road in and out, the bank called the RCMP in Squamish who set up a roadblock on the highway and apprehended the thieves.

The second story of a bank robbery in Whistler was even more straightforward. As the bank was located in a trailer, someone reportedly decided to hitch it up to their truck and drive away with it. Unfortunately for them, there was no money kept on the premises and the bank was found abandoned but intact relatively close by.

Important elements of a financial institution are delivered to Village Square to be installed in the North Shore Community Credit Union. Whistler Question Collection, 1984.

Though the Bank of Nova Scotia did offer some services in the trailer for a few year, it was not until June 1984 that a financial institution opened an official branch in Whistler. The North Shore Community Credit Union (NSCCU; known today as Blueshore Financial) officially opened in the Blackcomb Professional Building in Village Square on Saturday, June 2, though they had already been accepting clients for almost month. Although credit unions are not the same as banks, the NSCCU provided residents with many of the same services, including chequing, RRSPs, mortgages, and loans. With four full-time and two part-time employees, the NSCCU planned to be open five days a week (Tuesday to Saturday) and was also planning to install an ATM. This was the seventh branch of the NSCCU to open and the first outside of the North Shore and West Vancouver. For visiting NSCCU members, the opening of a Whistler location was also very convenient.

The opening of a financial institution in Whistler was well received by the community. Businesses and organizations such as the Whistler Resort Association and both mountains took advertisements out to welcome the NSCCU and there was a very good turnout at the opening. The NSCCU also encouraged residents to become members by offering a chance to win either a season’s dual mountain ski pass or a summer’s windsurfing. Though all members from any branch were eligible to enter the competition throughout June, it was two Whistler residents, Fred Lockwood and Heather McInnis, whose names were drawn by Willie Whistler at the beginning of July.

Tony Tyler (NSCCU branch manager) and Linda Stefan (NSCCU employee) draw the winners of the NSCCU opening draw with the help of Willie Whistler. Whistler Question Collection, 1984.

The NSCCU did not remain in its Village Square location for long. Over a weekend in December 1984, everything in the branch, (including the safe) was moved across Village Square before later making its move to its current location on the Village Stroll. Over the past forty years, other financial institutions have opened branches in Whistler, though none have been as portable as the Bank of Nova Scotia’s trailer.

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Ski Free by the BookSki Free by the Book

April 30, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

In a recent look through the Whistler Museum’s reference section, we came across another book aiming to teach skiing through a combination of the written work and photographs. Unlike Toni Sailer’s instructional flip book from 1964, Greg Athan’s Ski Free targets those who already know how to ski and are interested in learning about the sport of freestyle skiing.

Greg Athans was a Canadian freestyle skier in the 1970s and 80s, as well as a 15-time national water skiing champion. Like many freestyle skiers, he had a background in downhill skiing and won a gold medal in 1971 Canada Games for the alpine slalom. In 1973, Athans became the first person to win gold medals in both the winter and summer Canada Games when he came first in water skiing. Among his freestyle skiing titles, Athans was the 1977 Labatt World Trophy Tour Champion, the 1978 World Ballet Champion and World Mogul Champion, and, as mentioned in a recent article about a very busy week on Whistler Mountain in 1980, Athans was crowned World Cup Freestyle Champion alongside Stephanie Sloan for the 1979/80 season.

Greg Athans at the Labatt’s World Cup Freestyle Championship on Whistler Mountain. Whistler Question Collection, 1980.

Competitive freestyle skiing was still a relatively young sport when Ski Free was published in 1978. The first flip on skis was recorded in 1907 and moves found in ski ballet can be traced back to the 1920s. Flips and spins were seen in skiing exhibitions and shows throughout the 1950s and 60s and, according to a brief history of freestyle skiing found in Ski Free, Doug Pfeiffer’s School of Exotic Skiing taught tricks such as the mambo, the Charleston and more from 1956 to 1962.

In the late 1960s, “trick skiing” demonstrations were caught on films such as Ski the Outer Limits and The Moebius Flip but it wasn’t until 1971 that the first professional competition took place in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. Over the 1970s, competition circuits and freestyle camps became more popular, with freestyle skiing added to the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp on Whistler Mountain in 1973. Freestyle skiing was officially recognized by the International Ski Federation (FIS) in 1979, just one year after Ski Free was published.

Ski Free by Greg Athans, published in 1978.

According to Ski Free, freestyle skiing “offers the skier the freedom to do whatever he or she chooses and, possibly, to do what has never been done on skis before.” It begins, like Toni Sailer’s book, by instructing the skier on what type of equipment will be needed. Helpful notes and safety tips are also included, such as warning skiers not to have safety straps on their bindings for aerials as “a loose windmilling ski can be dangerous” and suggesting that when learning somersaults and flips a helmet might be a good idea. As helmets were not a standard piece of ski equipment at the time, a “well-fitting hockey helmet” was considered sufficient. Other equipment suggestions also place Ski Free at a certain time, as a “light mini-cassette recorder” and a fanny pack are described as useful for choreographing ballet routines.

Ski Free devotes a chapter to each of the three disciplines of freestyle skiing in 1978: moguls, aerials and ski ballet. With descriptions of techniques, common problem areas and solutions, and of specific tricks accompanied by photographs by Allan de la Plante, it would have been a great guide for those looking to learn more about the sport without today’s easy access to videos and film clips. Without the ease of looking up options on the internet, the book also provided a list of summer ski camps and off-season training programs for those looking for in-person instruction.

How to do an Athans’ Walkover, in five steps.

Freestyle skiing has changed a lot since Ski Free came out in 1978 and not all of the information is still relevant. Some of the tricks described are no longer so common (especially as ski ballet is no longer an official discipline), but for anyone wondering what is involved in a Legsbreaker Pivot, a Shea-guy, a Daiglebanger, or an Athans’ Walkover, the step-by-step instructions may prove very useful.

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Fool Me Once…Fool Me Once…

April 23, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

As far as we know, Drew Meredith never did win the lottery, as discussed in last week’s article about the Whistler Question‘s April Fools article of 1982. Other prank articles published by the Question, however, were far less far-fetched, such as the ones published in 1984.

The banner headline of the Question on March 29, 1984 read “SoCreds OK User Tax.” In the article, editor Kevin Griffin described how the provincial government had “set a Canadian precedent” when it made changes to the Municipal Act allowing resort towns with a population under 10,000 “to levy a local sales tax of up to two per cent” on liquor sale “by the drink,” day ski passes, meals, hotels, short term rentals, and retail goods. The revenue would be collected by the province and then redistributed back to municipal governments of resort towns.

SoCred Premier Bill Bennett is led on a tour through the Whistler Village by Mayor Pat Carleton in 1980. The SoCred party was in power during much of the early development of Whistler Village. Whistler Question Collection

In the article, Minister of Municipal Affairs Bill Curtis was reported to have said that the government recognized that resort towns often “unduly tax local ratepayers to provide needed resort amenities” and that this change was meant to address that tax burden.

Whistler’s Mayor Mark Angus was also quoted in the article pointing out similar taxes used in American ski resorts such as Sun Valley and Aspen. He and the Whistler Resort Association were both described as in support of the new tax and expected tax money to go towards park maintenance, snow clearing, a free bus system, and other projects.

Like in previous years, the front page of the Question included other articles along the same line, one detailing the proposed free bus system and another about a fountain that would be built with money from the new tax to improve Village Square, which was described as “a ‘black hole’ and a place without a focus.”

Landscape architect Eldon Beck shows off the features of Village Square in the early 1980s, though some people supposedly thought that the area could really use a fountain. Beck Collection.

Those who read these stories would have quickly realized that there was no such new tax, and therefore no free buses or new fountain in the works (though there had been a shuttle bus operating the previous year funded by a municipal grant, advertising, and passenger fares). Towards the end of the main article, quotes from Al Raine were followed by the statement that “Raine also added that he didn’t mind being quoted in an April Fool’s story because he agreed with the thrust of the article anyway.”

According to the accompanying editorial, the topic of a user tax was chosen because the Question decided to write articles that they would like to see in the paper and to generate discussion among the community and levels of government. The paper also asked visitors to the resort what they thought of a municipal sales tax for their “Whistler’s Answers” feature. Though most were against paying more for their visit, one visitor from San Francisco said, “I wouldn’t mind at all. A lot of American visitors look at the exchange rate and it’s not too bad. If they can take two per cent and turn it around to make it work for the community, it’s all right.”

Whistler’s Answers: March 29, 1984

The following week, three residents were asked what they thought of the April Fool’s stories and Mark Angus was quoted (truthfully this time) to say “As long as you take it lightly no damage is done,” and one resident said that it was made more believable because they had seen user taxes in other resorts. Not everyone appreciated the joke articles, however. One letter to the editor the following week was unimpressed and claimed that it was “presumptuous” to assume that readers would read the complete story and explanatory editorial rather than just the headline and that such a headline could prevent visitors from returning.

Throughout the month of April the Question published other articles about how such taxes worked in various American resorts, where Whistler’s funding currently came from and more. In 1987, the provincial government established the Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT), which applies to short-term tourist accommodations. While not exactly like the tax proposed by the Question in 1984, the MRDT has similar aims and the paper was able to report on the story without having to create their own quotations.

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Fools Rush InFools Rush In

April 16, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

On April 1, 1982, the front page of the Whistler Question announced “2 million win donated to community,” accompanied by a photograph of Drew Meredith, the supposed donor. Prank headlines in newspapers are nothing new, ranging from the obviously foolish to the almost believable, and headlines designed specifically for April 1 have graced Whistler newspapers since the 1980s. Some of the article have been lighthearted, while others have turned out to be prophetic.

The front page of the Whistler Question for April 1, 1982.

According to the Question, Meredith, a Whistler realtor, won $2,304,197.16 on Fools Rush In in the Irish Derby after purchasing the ticket on a dare from Debbie Tiegan. Upon receiving word of his luck, he decided to donate his winnings to the municipality to finish community projects and facilities, such as the construction of municipal hall and the Whistler Health Care Centre. His only stipulation was that it also be used for a “permanent hot-air balloon in the parking lot at the Blackcomb Day Lodge with a MacGregor-Pacific sign on the side.” A ceremony was allegedly planned to take place in Village Square on April 3 where Meredith would hand the cheque over to Mayor Pat Carleton.

The recession of the early 1980s came just as the development of Whistler Village was beginning to boom. Though some properties were completed, work on various lots was halted for a period, including the partially constructed Whistler Resort Centre (today the Whistler Conference Centre). Municipal budgets were reduced, municipal staff took a pay cut in 1982, and in July 1982 only 60% of property taxes were paid on time. In this economic climate, a large donation to the municipality would probably have been very welcome.

Drew Meredith was named Citizen of the Year in 1980 at the Chamber of Commerce Dinner. Whistler Question Collection, 1980

The April 1 front page also featured two more stories that, especially looking back, don’t seem all that plausible. One claimed that the Ministry of Transportation had announced an experimental snow removal system for Highway 99 called Operation SNO (Surface Nuisance Obliteration) that would use solar heating to melt snow off the highway as it fell. A prototype of the system had reportedly been installed in Mayr Pat Carleton’s driveway for the 1981/82 winter.

The other claimed that Colorado experts had solved the problem of snow falling off of the Whistler Resort Centre roof, which had become a public safety concern in March when large slabs of snow began shifting. The proposed solution was to “hyper-energize” the roof by installing a 20’x20′ fireplace in the middle of the building to heat the roof, thought it was still to be determined how the fireplace would be incorporated into the arena floor.

This slab slid off the roof in March after the municipality was warned of the danger it posed. Whistler Question Collection, 1982

Of the three stories, only that of Meredith’s donation was followed up on in the next edition. Few people appear to have been upset by the story, though quite a few readers were willing to accept it, despite claiming that they would never be so altruistic themselves. According to Meredith, he “thoroughly enjoyed the escapade,” which he had not known about ahead of time, and was getting interesting responses from community members.

In the Question’s “Whistler Answers,” where six people were asked for their response to the story, Jack Cram claimed that he initially believed it because he “thought Drew is the kind of person to do something like that” and was very busy when he read it, “so it took a while to sink in.” Ross Tocher thought that if it was true then either Meredith wanted a mountain named after him or he wanted to be mayor (Drew Meredith was elected as mayor, but not until 1986). Some, like Lisa Knight, believed the headline but then recognized it as a joke as they read the article. According to Bob Currie, “It was just too much of a coincidence to have a story like that April 1.”

Whistler’s Answers: April 8, 1982
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