Museum Musings – Page 4 – Whistler Museum and Archives Society

Reporting on RainbowReporting on Rainbow

September 9, 2025 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Wartime rationing was nearing its end by the summer of 1947, but for Rainbow Lodge, a renowned romantic honeymoon destination, another type of rationing prevailed. Upon returning from her summer vacation, Pat Wallace reported that it was “poor hunting for husbands at summer resorts”, and that “the chances of nabbing a rich romeo or a plain every-day bread-winner for the future [were] very slim.”

The lack of romantic prospects did not seem to deter Pat Prowd and Pat Wallace, both reporters for Vancouver newspapers who often journeyed up to Alta Lake. Pat Prowd was a reporter for the Daily Province and the Vancouver News-Herald from 1939 to 1960, while Pat Wallace began her career at the Vancouver Sun before moving to the Daily Province in 1944 to be Women’s Editor, retiring in 1982. Pat Wallace’s sister, Moira, married Pat Prowd’s distant cousin, James McCarthy, in 1951, connecting the two families. James had proposed at Rainbow Lodge at Christmastime 1950.

Christmas 1950, Alta Lake. (Left to right) Pat Wallace, Myrtle Philip, Pat Prowd, Jim McCarthy, Moira Wallace. Philip Collection.

The two women may have been guests at the resort, but they were not afraid of mixing business with pleasure. Pat Prowd in particular “usually lent a hand to Myrtle in the running of the lodge.” According to Dick Fairhurst, “this meant helping the staff clean the main lodge, cabins, and shower house.” Both journalists documented life at Rainbow Lodge in the 40s and 50s, singing the praises of the lakeside community.

Pat Prowd and Myrtle Philip standing beside tennis courts at Rainbow Lodge, circa 1940s. Philip Collection.

In August 1947, Pat Wallace’s column, “Urban Album” publicized the ‘Doin’s Club,” a “familiar institution” of Rainbow Lodge. The club embraced the task of greeting guests at the station, their motto being: “don’t wait to be introduced, just smile and say hello.” The club derived its name from Billy Standard, a veteran of the First World War who purportedly first visited Rainbow Lodge in the 20s. Billy became notorious for referring to Worcester sauce as the ‘doin’s’, and the term quickly became “the by-word of the camp that season,” lending its name to a social club.

The initiation ritual? Drinking a teaspoon of Worcester sauce. With some 1600 members initiated by the summer of 1947, it is no surprise that supply of the condiment remained scarce at the resort.

Myrtle Philip and Pat Prowd cross country skiing, circa 1940s. Philip Collection.

Winter weather did little to discourage either journalist from making the journey up the railway. In fact, Pat Prowd’s March 1950 visit resulted in a “deep suntan to rival anything she might have picked up in Palm Springs.” Her holiday consisted of wintry picnics at Green Lake, with Myrtle building fires in the snow. Myrtle also adapted her “delicious flaky blueberry pie” recipe for the season, adding fresh snow to the ingredient list. Her guests deemed this variation “pure ambrosia.”

Both reporters spent the holiday season of 1950-1951 at Alta Lake, described as “a winter wonderland of gentle white quiet.” Pat Wallace told the Daily Province’s readers how she was met with “great stars of white” as she disembarked the train at Rainbow Station. The Philips’ house guests danced their way into the new year, dispersing at half past five on January 1st. “High in the mountains,” Pat Wallace wrote, “1951 received a warm hearted welcome bar none.”

Logan Roberts is the Summer Program Coordinator at the Whistler Museum through the Young Canada Works Program.

School Days and BearsSchool Days and Bears

September 2, 2025 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

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.

While there are still conflicts, Whistler has come a long way in its bear management and has been a Bear Smart Community since 2011. Petersen Collection

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.

Garbage was also left around the valley outside the designated dump area, leading to additional conflicts between bears and people throughout the valley. George Benjamin Collection

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.”

The Lifty OlympicsThe Lifty Olympics

August 26, 2025 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Thirteen years before Whistler and Vancouver hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Blackcomb Mountain began hosting a smaller, perhaps less prestigious, but likely no less competitive event called the Lifty Olympics.

The Lifty Olympics began in April 1997 as part of the second World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF). In its first year, WSSF had featured 22 events over ten days, including the Couloir Ski Race Extreme, the Whistler Cup, and the WestBeach Classic, along with performances by bands such as Vancouver’s 54•40. For its second year, additional events were included such as the Norco Challenge (Norco factory riders competed to see who could go the fastest on their bike down Whistler Mountain’s Saddle) and the Backbone Enduro Vertical Challenge. While most WSSF events catered to those who skied or snowboarded on the mountains, the Lifty Olympics featured those who worked in mountain operations.

Lifties are an integral part of keeping the mountain running smoothly, especially when working with fixed grip lifts. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

According to organizer Jim Tutsch, the Lifty Olympics was “specifically designed to test the wiles of local lifties” and “demonstrate the activities of a lift operations specialist in the course of their daily duties.” Teams from both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains competed in four timed events. In one, they had to set up 36 maze gates in a standard pattern used to merge four lines of skiers down to one. Teams also had to transport garbage cans of snow up the mountain, perform a net drop rescue with a fireman’s net, and complete a full shut down procedure. Tutsch warned that these activities would be made a bit harder, such as by scattering rakes, shovels, ropes and gates around the bottom terminal that would need to be stacked when shutting down. The team that completed their duties with the fastest times won a keg of beer and year’s worth of bragging rights.

With space for six teams, all of the positions were reportedly filled within one day. Each team had four people, of which one member had to be female and one (though it is unclear if it could be the same one) had to be “an Australian or a reasonable facsimile.” A few days before the competition on April 7, Tutsch told the Question that staff members on both mountains were in training “polishing shovels, moving maze gates and counting down the days to the event.” This early enthusiasm for the Lifty Olympics had Tutsch thinking of expansion, whether to other mountain departments or to teams from other ski resorts.

A lifty needs to be prepared for anything, including a visit from a wizard. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, Greg Griffith, 1992

While the Lifty Olympics doesn’t appear to have spread to other departments, the Cascade Toboggan Ski Patrol Challenge joined the WSSF line up in 1999 and featured ski patrollers from across North America in five events such as the Dual GS Toboggan Challenge, Speed Packaging, and the Multiple Transceiver Search.

The Lifty Olympics at Blackcomb’s Base II continued as part of WSSF over the next few years, though it is not part of the WSSF line up these days. In 2000, Tutsch told the Question that the event was not just a competition, but also “a big thank you and formal recognition of the invaluable input of these unsung heroes.”

A Rainbow Lodge WranglerA Rainbow Lodge Wrangler

August 19, 2025 Whistler Museum 2 Comments

Horses were a vital part of life at Alta Lake in the early half of the 20th century, facilitating transportation, construction, agriculture, leisure, and exploration. David Esworthy, who passed away in 2015, was a highly respected figure in the Canadian equestrian scene whose beginnings can be traced back to Rainbow Lodge. He went on to amass an impressive score of accolades, including president of the Canadian Equestrian Federation and Horse Council BC, and member of the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

David as a toddler on horseback, held there by Myrtle. Philip Collection.

David was born on January 29, 1929, in Victoria, B.C. His mother, Margaret Esworthy (née Tapley), had travelled to Alta Lake from Maine to help her sister, Myrtle Philip, set up Rainbow Lodge in 1914. Photographs from the Philip collection reveal that David very quickly became acquainted with the lodge’s horses.

Growing up in the Lower Mainland, David spent summers at Rainbow Lodge. As a teenager, he worked as the lodge’s wrangler. During that era, guests could sign up for early morning trail rides, which meant employees like David rose at 4 o’clock to prepare the horses. Lodge guests could pre-book their breakfast rides to Lost Lake or Green Lake, or opt for midnight trail rides complete with campfires, singing, and toasted marshmallows.

Margaret Tapley Esworthy holding her son David, on a hill overlooking Rainbow Lodge. Philip Collection.

Moira McCarthy, who tended to the horses with David, remembered how Myrtle once caught them jumping the horses over logs, and the pair received a healthy scolding. Still, a 1974 article in The Province announcing a Rainbow Lodge reunion fondly remembered David as “the summer wrangler [who] had all the young things scrambling to ride along with him when he rounded up the horses at 4 a.m.”

David as a baby on horseback with his aunt, Jean Tapley. Philip Collection.

After leaving the lodge, David worked on a ranch in the Interior for two years and studied agriculture at the University of British Columbia. In 1949, he married Patricia Howat, and the couple naturally chose Alta Lake as their honeymoon destination.

Myrtle and David in Vancouver, circa 1940s. Philip Collection.

David, Patricia, their son Philip, and dog Sandy continued to visit Myrtle and would often travel to Alta Lake in the summers. The Alta Lake Echo’s December 18th, 1960 edition described how the Esworthys got stuck on the PGE when a bridge over Cheakamus Canyon caught flame, arriving so late for dinner at the Philips’ that there was no time to help wash dishes before they had to turn around and return home!

Seeking to spend more time with his young family, David joined North Vancouver’s Northridge Riding Club, and soon became its instructor and buyer. For the next fifty years, he dedicated himself to the sport, teaching clinics internationally and serving as judge, a horse show chair and an organizer. He was one of the few Fédération Equestre Internationale stewards to hold tickets in all three disciplines, a director on the Canadian Horse Council, and he assisted in the preparations for the equestrian events in the 1976 and 1984 Olympics in Montreal and Los Angeles. David’s vast resumé of volunteer work was merely in addition to his 40 year career with the Hastings Brass Foundry, the last four serving as president and CEO.

Alex Philip and great nephew Philip Esworthy.

David was undeniably influential in Canada’s equestrian scene, and, if stories of his indomitable aunt are to be believed, he certainly came by his penchant and inclination towards horses honestly!

Logan Roberts is the Summer Program Coordinator at the Whistler Museum through the Young Canada Works Program.

Category: Museum Musings

Reporting on RainbowReporting on Rainbow

School Days and BearsSchool Days and Bears

The Lifty OlympicsThe Lifty Olympics

A Rainbow Lodge WranglerA Rainbow Lodge Wrangler