Category: Tales from Alta Lake

Before the lifts came, Alta Lake was a small resource and summer tourism based community.

Wartime by the LakeWartime by the Lake

July 8, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Last year marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied land invasion of Normandy which initiated the liberation of Europe from the Nazi regime. The Second World War managed to disrupt Alta Lake’s idyllic summers, and for one of its longtime families, June 6th, 1944 would prove to be especially memorable.  

Margaret Bellamy (née Clarke) was born in 1946 and started journeying up to Alta Lake with her family a few weeks later. Her grandmother, Grace Woollard, had first arrived at Alta Lake along the Pemberton Trail in 1912 with her friend, Grace Archibald, and her brother, Ernie Archibald, who was working for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. 

In an oral history from 2012, Margaret recounted how her mother, Betty Clarke (née Woollard) and father, Douglas Clarke, spent summers at Alta Lake growing up. Their fathers were colleagues at the Shaughnessy Military Hospital, and the two families had become good friends. Betty was Alta Lake School’s second teacher, replacing Margaret Partridge in 1936. After Betty and Douglas’ marriage in 1941, Douglas departed for the war, and Betty decided to buy a cabin at the south end of Alta Lake, rather than stay in Vancouver. Wanting to be closer to her daughter and grandchild, Grace Woollard sold her cabin on the east side of the lake, and purchased a neighbouring cabin at the southern end.

Betty and her sister Eleanor along the tracks at Alta Lake. Lundstrom Collection

Prior to her father’s 33rd birthday on June 6th, 1944, soon to be cemented in history as D-Day, Margaret’s mother sensed something major was about to occur concerning the war. She knew that her husband had been stationed in the south of England for “months and months and months and months” and Vancouver newspapers had long discussed an impending invasion, but no one knew when or where this assault would take place. Although Margaret was not born until 1946, she shared her family’s memories of the day as they were later told to her.

The first Canadian soldiers landed on Juno Beach just before 10 pm Vancouver time on June 5th. The Germans reported the amphibious assault on Normandy at 9:37 pm Vancouver time, and Allied sources would later verify the accounts. As news of the invasion finally crackled through the radio, Betty had no indication as to whether her husband was involved in the battle. 

While casualties and updates came through, Margaret described how her older sister Susanne, then a toddler, dropped her beautiful Cowichan sweater down the outhouse. With tears running down her face, Betty fished the soiled sweater out with a stick. She brought it down to the lake to rinse it out, all while frantically trying to listen to the radio. Very little information was coming through, and the short clips that were audible were followed by twenty minutes of maddening static. 

“It was a bad day. And all this being my father’s birthday,” said Margaret. Thankfully, her father survived the war and would have many more birthdays, passing away in 1986 at the age of 74. His ashes were spread at Alta Lake.

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

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Building on FilmBuilding on Film

July 1, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Last month (June 18) the Whistler Museum and the Point Artist-Run Centre hosted a film screening that featured 8mm film from our archives. The films, mainly from the 1950s and ’60s, included snippets of sailing on Alta Lake, pie eating contests at Cypress Lodge (today the Point), and even the 1958 hike where stew was burnt on Whistler Mountain, along with footage of a under construction.

The house in question was built in September 1966 for Florence Strachan (Petersen). Florence first came to the Alta Lake area when she, June Tidball (Collins), Betty Atkinson (Gray), Jacquie Pope and Eunice “Kelly” Forster (Fairhurst) bought a cabin together in 1955. They named the cabin Witsend and would visit often throughout the summer. The following year, four of the five purchased the lot next door for $500. Over the following years, the other three sold their shares, leaving Florence as the sole owner of the lot.

(Left to right) Florence Strachan, Jacquie Pope, June Tidball, Fido, Betty Gray and Eunice “Kelly” Forster at their Witsend cottage in 1955.

Florence then decided to build a summer home overlooking Alta Lake, as she was till teaching full-time in Burnaby and spending her summers at Alta Lake. First, the lot had to be cleared, both of trees and, as can be seen in the 8mm footage, a couple of structures. The project was headed by Andy Petersen (who Florence married in 1967) and he was helped by Florence’s friends and family, who can be seen moving what appears to be an “explosive” outhouse while wearing shorts and sandals. Once cleared, construction could begin on the house.

Florence ordered a prefabricated house designed by Greenall Bros. Ltd., who in the 1960s produced prefabricated structures including houses, schools and construction camps. According to their advertisements in 1964, their buildings offered solid construction, good value, almost immediate occupancy, and “conventional appearance.”

Florence’s house arrived at Alta lake in September 1966 with all of the pieces cut to size. Like the clearing of the lot, the house was constructed by friends and family under the supervision of Andy. While the construction was sound, some of the practices would not be accepted today, such as the group working on top of the roof with no harnesses or safety gear (including children).

While the Alta Lake community was small, friends and neighbours were often willing to help with projects from chopping and stacking firewood to building a house. Petersen Collection

While the house was considered “built” in 1966, according to Andy it took them 25 years to finish it. For the first year, the house was uninsulated and had no power, making it very cold and uncomfortable in the winter. The Petersens would come up to check on the house but it wasn’t until after they installed electric heating that they started to visit more regularly throughout the year. Built on posts, Andy added a “proper foundation” and continued to work on the finishing touches.

In the spring of 1968, Andy moved up to live in the house full time as he and Dick Fairhurst of Cypress Lodge were constructing the Scotia Creek water line. Andy recalled that during this time, he accidentally put some holes in the roof while blasting the path for the line down to the house. He had to go down to Vancouver to get the tools and materials to fix the roof and, when Florence asked what he was doing home, told her “Oh, well, I have to go and get some stuff, something broke.” According to Andy, “I didn’t say I blew the roof off the house!”

Florence moved up to join Andy in Whistler full-time after retiring from teaching in 1983. After Andy retired, having finally finished working on the house, he turned his attention to the garden, building three terraces between the road and the house. In 2006, Florence wrote that she and Andy “can’t imagine living anywhere else and never tire of the view across the lake.” The Petersens continued to live at the house until Florence’s death in 2012, after which Andy moved away from Whistler.

It is always exciting when we find archival films, like many of the films in the Petersen Collection, that give us a better view of stories that are told to us through letters, interviews and more. You can view some of the film that has been digitized online – check out the Whistler Museum YouTube channel to see more.

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Digitizing Alta LakeDigitizing Alta Lake

June 17, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Long before the Whistler Museum and Archives Society (WMAS) was officially founded in 1987 – when it was just a few shelves tucked away in the basement of the Whistler Public Library inside Municipal Hall – the idea of preserving the valley’s summer resort history was already taking root. Even then, the vision was clear: to safeguard and share the stories of the people who helped shaped this community, and to make sure they would not be forgotten.

That vision was driven by a promise. Florence Petersen, the founder of WMAS, made a personal commitment to Myrtle Philip who, alongside her husband Alex, opened Rainbow Lodge in 1914 and brought the first wave of tourism to the Alta Lake and later Whistler area. That promise was simple yet profound: to ensure that Whistler’s history and the lives and experiences of its residents would not be forgotten.

One of the many photos in the Philip Collection.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, efforts to collect oral histories, photographs, and films documenting life in the valley were already underway. The first items added to the museum’s archival collection reflect this early work, including 1,700 images related to Myrtle and Alex Philip and Rainbow Lodge, spanning from 1895 to 1986. These mostly black-and-white photographs, along with various 16mm films, capture a transformative period in the valley’s history, showcasing the growth of the Alta lake community and the broader evolution of Whistler as a tourist destination.

Preserving these materials is a responsibility we take seriously. Following Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) standards, we handle photographs using cotton gloves and store them in acid-free, archival-safe sleeves. These simple yet essential steps ensure that these fragile items remain in good shape for future generations.

Florence Petersen chats with Myrtle Philip. Philip Collection

Of course, preservation is only part of the job. Sharing Whistler’s history with the public, without risking damage to delicate originals, means creating digital copies of these items. Over the years, we’ve steadily expanded our capacity to digitize our collection. Today, we can convert a wide variety of media, including 16mm and 8mm film reels, colour slides, photographic prints, VHS tapes, Hi8, and DVCam formats.

Digitization is carried out using lossless formats like TIFF (Tag Image File Format), which preserve every pixel of the original image. A single high-resolution TIFF can be as large as 150 MB – about the size of 14 JPEGs on a modern smartphone. Unlike JPEGs, which compress data and average out similar pixels (sometimes causing those “blocky” images you see when streaming video on a slow internet connection), TIFF files retain the full fidelity of the original image.

Once digitized, we render to more manageable JPEG versions for everyday use, including social media, educational materials, and exhibits. These smaller files are easier to handle and help us tell Whistler’s story more widely and effectively.

Acid-free boxes, sleeves and more help keep archival materials safe.

To ensure the safety of our digital archives, we back up all high-resolution files to offsite servers and secure long-term storage systems, including LTO (Linear Tape-Open) tapes, which provide up to 30 years of reliable “cold” storage of these digital items.

WMAS is proud to be able to continue Florence’s promise and Myrtle’s legacy. Every photo we scan, every film we digitize, and every story we preserve is another piece of Whistler’s remarkable history saved – not just for today, but for generations to come.

WMAS will be hosting a film screening tomorrow (Wednesday, June 18) at the Point Artist-Run Centre, featuring archival films shot around the Alta Lake community, including 16mm films from the Philip Collection. This screening will offer a fascinating look at films from the Whistler Museum’s archives, shown right on the shores of Alta Lake. Get your tickets for the event here!

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It’s a Small WorldIt’s a Small World

April 1, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

Last month we shared a story about Whistler residents encountering each other while traveling when, in 1984, Inge and Jens Nielsen discovered Chuck Blaylock was piloting their flight back from Europe. It’s also not uncommon for visitors or residents to come across someone in Whistler who they know from outside the valley, often long before they moved to the area. In the 1990s, this phenomenon happened to Karen Vagelatos when she dropped her kids off at ski school.

Karen grew up in the Vancouver area and first visited Alta Lake as a teenager in the summer of 1963 when she, her cousin Bob Calladine, and their racing coach Lorne O’Connor were part of a group that climbed up Whistler Mountain and were filmed skiing Whistler Bowl. Karen learned to ski at the age of three (not surprising as her father had a popular ski shop in downtown Vancouver for many years) and was a member of the Canada National Ski Team from 1964 to 1968, competing in two Olympic Winter Games.

Karen is seen next to Nancy Greene during the 1969 Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

After retiring from racing, Karen coached for the Whistler Mountain Ski Club and the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp and even when living in Vancouver continued to visit the area regularly, first staying with friends and then buying a cabin. Her family moved up full-time in 1995.

By 1995, Karen and her family had moved over to Blackcomb Mountain and were members of the Blackcomb Ski Club. When asked why she made the switch after such a long history on Whistler, Karen explained that is was not as much about the terrain as it was the chairlifts; Whistler was still running double chairs while Blackcomb had triples, which meant that she and her husband could each take two of their four young kids instead of sending them up with other skiers.

A Kids Kamp lesson on Blackcomb Mountain. Blackcomb Mountain Collection

This switch meant that her children attended Blackcomb’s Kids Kamp and when taking them in one she came across none other than Florence Petersen at reception. Karen happened to be with someone she went to high school with who pointed out Florence as “Flossie,” their PE teacher in Burnaby for grades 11 and 12.

It might seem strange to some to call a teacher by a nickname, but Florence was known to quite a few of here students as Flossie. Florence attended Burnaby North Secondary School before doing her teacher training at the Vancouver Normal School. At the time, most new teachers would spend a few years teaching at a one-room school after completing their training before they applied for positions in the larger city schools. However, there was a shortage of trained PE teachers in the late 1940s. Florence was one of only a few in her year who completed the extra course to be qualified, meaning she went straight into teaching at city secondary schools.

Florence’s first position was as a PE teacher at a school in Coquitlam, where she was only a year older than some of her oldest students. After two years, she moved to Burnaby North, her alma mater, where she taught for the next fifteen years. When she first arrived back at Burnaby North, she found herself teaching former schoolmates who had been young students when she graduated. Looking back in 2007, she recalled “I have to thank them all for being very respectful” and calling her Ms Strachan in class and Flossie outside of school.

Florence and Don Gow on the Burnt Stew Hike in the 1950s where Burnt Stew Basin was given its name. Gow Collection

Florence later transitioned into counselling and went first to Moscrop Junior High and then Burnaby South Secondary School before retiring in 1983 after 36 years as a teacher.

In 1955, while teaching at Burnaby North, Florence and fellow teachers and friends Betty Gray (Shore), June Tidball (Collins), Kelly Forster (Fairhurst) and Jacquie Pope purchased Witsend, a cottage on Alta Lake that they would visit regularly until it was destroyed by a fire in 1965. Florence moved up permanently when she retired, joining her husband Andy Petersen who had already been living in their Whistler property full-time.

As well as becoming Whistler’s first marriage commissioner and a founding force behind the Whistler Museum, Florence could sometimes be found working in places such as the Kids Kamp building, where Karen Vagelatos came across her. Though Karen had not known about Florence’s connection to Alta Lake, after this first meeting she would regularly see her around Whistler. Looking back, she recalled Florence as a great but demanding PE teacher with high expectations of her students.

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