Category: Whistler: A Town

As well as being a resort, Whistler is town (kind of) like any other.

Bringing the Mail to the VillageBringing the Mail to the Village

March 18, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

In February 1981, Whistler Mayor Pat Carleton was informed that the Post Office would be moving into the (still under construction) Whistler Village. This announcement that a three-year lease for a space in the Rainbow Building had been signed came from Senator Ray Perrault on behalf of the Postmaster General, the Honourable André Ouellet, and it was made clear that this was to be a temporary location until a more permanent location for the post office was built.

The post office had already moved around the Whistler valley a few times, starting out at Rainbow Lodge in 1914 and ending up in a building provided by the Valleau family at Mons. After the Resort Municipality of Whistler was formed in 1975 and planning began for a town centre, it was expected that the post office would eventually move to a more centrally located site near other services such as a grocery store, bank, and more.

New lockboxes are moved into the recently renovated Post Office in the Rainbow Building. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

In his February 17, 1981, letter to council, Senator Perrault reported that improvements to the space would begin shortly and that the Post Office would be scheduled to open on May 1. As of mid-March, however, work had not yet started on any renovations to the space across from the Gourmet. The May deadline came and went and the post office continued to be located outside of the town centre.

1981 was an eventful year for post offices and sorting facilities in Canada. On June 30, over 20,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) went on strike over one of the union’s key demands, which was the provision of seventeen weeks of paid maternity leave for their members. While small rural offices such as the one in Whistler were still open, mail was only delivered to other rural offices in the region and larger offices such as the one in Squamish were shut down.

Postmistress Beth Pipe serves customers from the new post office location. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

By mid-July, Beth Pipe, the post master, was the only employee working at the Whistler post office and hours had been reduced so that the office was closed for lunch each day and closed on Saturdays (post offices were already closed on Sundays). In the meantime, work had begun on the renovations at the new post office space and it was hoped that the move would be able to take place during the strike, as there would be little traffic to either location and so minimal disruption to operations. It was proving difficult, however, to find a solution to an access problem, in that lock boxes needed 24-hour access and putting a public doorway in the stairwell would also provide 24-hour access to the private condominiums on the second floor. The Whistler Village Land Company initially objected to the eventual solution of turning one of the external windows in the post office space into a door for aesthetic purposes and the location of the door had to be negotiated.

When a national vote by members of the CUPW on August 10 (after the Treasury Board had agreed to their demand for seventeen weeks of paid maternity leave, setting a precedent that would soon be followed by other unions) ended the strike and postal service resumed on August 11, the new post office was still not ready for occupation. It was not until mid-September that the move occurred and the post office began operating out of the Rainbow Building on September 21.

The move came with a couple of surprises for post office staff. When arriving at the new location the Saturday prior to the move to get some work done, Pipe found the public access door locked. As an employee, she was able to gain access through the back door and found a couple “well ensconced in their sleeping bags” in the lock box area who had locked the door from the inside.

Just in case anyone was unsure about the postal code for Whistler. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

Operating in the new space also turned out to be very different from the post office’s previous location. According to Pipe, “It’s like moving to the big city” and in some ways she missed the quiet setting of the old office. The new space had an additional 260 post boxes, with space for another 312 to be added, which meant that there would be fewer people having to queue to collect their mail.

The Rainbow Building was not the final stop for Whistler’s Post Office and mail service has continued to change. Even with the additional space and lock boxes provided by the new location, there was an extensive waiting list for lock boxes by 1985 and other solutions such as boxes in the subdivisions were put in place. The Post Office’s current location in Marketplace opened in the 1990s and at certain times of year additional locations are sometimes opened in other areas of the valley to help meet demand.

READ MOREREAD MORE

What’s in a (restaurant) name?What’s in a (restaurant) name?

March 11, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

There have been many restaurants in Whistlers over the years named for individuals, whether they be the chef, the owner, or a notable valley personality (for a time there was a restaurant in the Whistler Village named Myrtle’s after Myrtle Philip). Two such restaurants operating today are Black’s, which first opened as The Original Restaurante under Lawrence Black in 1985, and Araxi, which was opened by Jack and Araxi Evrensel in 1981. Other namesakes of Whistler Village eateries include Ingrid Morgan (Ingrid’s Village Cafe, 1986), Joel Thibault (Chez Joel, 1985), Umberto Menghi (Trattoria Di Umberto), Tom Akama (Tokyo Tom’s), and Isabelle Czerveniak (Isabelle’s, opened by her parents Curt and Monica in 1985). Traveling north of the village in the early 1980s, you would have come across a sign for another restaurant, this one located at the base of Rainbow Ski Village and named Beau’s.

The Rainbow Ski Village, where today’s Rainbow Neighbourhood is built. Jarvis Collection

Capilano Highlands Ltd. opened a small ski area at Rainbow in the winter of 1969/70. Operated by Vic Christiansen and his family, it had one 400-foot rope two and a beginners’ slope. After that first season, another, longer rope tow was added and a day lodge with a cafe was constructed. Over the 1970/71 season, Rainbow operated five days a week (Wednesday – Sunday) and offered night skiing and reasonable rates. Over time, a third rope-tow was added and a ski jump was built.

Tom and Betty Jarvis bought the Ski Rainbow area (including lifts, ski shop and cafeteria) as a going concern in the summer of 1979 and, after renovating and extending the existing restaurant facilities, they opened Beau’s in December of that year. The name came from the Jarvis’ eldest son, Beau Jarvis. Beau’s featured a “continental cuisine” prepared by chef Michel Bertholet and was open daily throughout the ski season, even during the weeks when there wasn’t enough snow for the Rainbow Ski Village to be open for skiing.

The bar at Beau’s Restaurant. Jarvis Collection

Beau and his brother Quinn grew up in a much smaller Whistler than the one we know today. In an interview in 2024, Beau could name almost every student in his Myrtle Philip School kindergarten class taught by Jane Burrows (there were only five or six of them). With so few children, the school didn’t really have enough kids to form competitive sports teams and so individual sports, such as cross-country (running and skiing), ski racing, and later skateboarding, were popular.

In the summers, Beau remembered he and his friends would head out for the day with a backpack and a towel each, often hanging out at the ski jump ramp on Lost Lake or going to Alta Lake, where they would explore the empty cabins at Rainbow Lodge or use the beach at the Youth Hostel. As they got older, some of them began participating in the Dave Murray Summer Ski Camps on Whistler Mountain and joined the Blackcomb or Whistler Mountain Ski Clubs.

Beau’s Restaurant at the Rainbow Ski Village. Jarvis Collection

Beau also recalled lots of skiing at Rainbow. Though the ski jump was no longer in use and had started to deteriorate, a track through the trees between the two beginner runs led to a jump that young, adventurous skiers could launch themselves off of, which, according to Beau, led to an announcement over the loudspeaker where Betty would tell her sons and their friends to “stop jumping into the middle of the ski hill.”

A couple of bad snow years in the early 1980s meant that the Rainbow Ski Village wasn’t always able to operate, but Tom and Betty continued to open Beau’s for a few seasons, even after shutting down the skiing side of the operations and selling the lifts and equipment to the Canadian Armed Forces. Beau’s closed for good in the mid-1980s.

READ MOREREAD MORE

Asking for AnswersAsking for Answers

March 4, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

While newspapers have long been a place for readers to express opinions through Letters to the Editor, the Whistler Question introduced a new feature in 1981 that shared the thoughts and opinions of three to six residents or visitors to Whistler on one specific topic. The very first “Whistler’s Answers” was published on November 5, 1981, and the Question would continue to publish these answers for over thirty years.

The Question described their new feature as “an opportunity for you, the community, to express your views and opinions” and explained that each week there would be a question “on an issue pertinent to Whistler” and that a “random six Whistler visitors or residents” would be interviewed. Their answers and photos would then be published in the weekly paper and readers would be able to suggest their own questions by contacting their office.

It happened that the end of October was more eventful than the Question had necessarily expected and so their first question was in fact two questions: “What do you think the provincial government can do to make the Squamish highway safe?” and “Do you think the recent floods and the tragedy at M Creek will make people think twice before visiting Whistler?” On Tuesday, October 27, water, mud and debris washed out the M Creek bridge on Highway 99, resulting in the deaths of nine people. Another rainstorm led to further flooding throughout the Sea to Sky region on October 31 and by the end of November 1 the area was cut off from the rest of the province by washed out bridges to the south and a culvert washout to the north. Within Whistler, Brio was the hardest hit subdivision, though the Whistler Creek area at the base of Whistler Mountain was also quite damaged. Ted Pryce-Jones, Helen Moran, Hugh McMillan, Shelley Heidt, Rod MacLeod and Jane MacPhail all had their own thoughts on making the highway safer and whether visitors would be deterred, but most agreed that either the wooden bridges should be replaced with stronger concrete ones or that the highway should be rerouted.

The first published “Whistler’s Answers” coincided with significant flooding throughout the Sea to Sky, including at the base of Whistler Mountain. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

The topics of the “Whistler’s Answers” questions included everything from local bylaws (there were some strong opinions about neon signs in the 1980s) to global considerations to philosophical debates. Some weeks the questions were specifically meant for visitors to Whistler, asking about their experiences in the resort or how they had heard of it. While some questions were timeless, such as asking about New Year’s resolutions, others are much more tied to the time in which they were asked. Throughout 1982 and ’83, many of the questions had to do with the economic impact of a recession on Whistler, whether they be about pay cuts or unfinished building lots or what to do with the stalled Resort Centre. Looking back today, the answers reflect a lot of uncertainty and remind us that it was not guaranteed that Whistler, still a new municipality, would be a success.

These three familiar faces were asked about Whistler’s parks and trails in the spring of 1984. L to R: Peter Xhignesse, Joan Richoz, Charlie Doyle. Whistler Question Collection, 1984

In 1982, the six randomly selected interviewees dropped to three and there are some weeks when, based on the photos taken of those who provided answers, it appears that the selection was mainly of patrons of Tapley’s Pub and Village Square businesses. Nevertheless, most people who provided answers appear to have given the questions some thought and the feature provided an interesting insight into what was important to those living in and visiting Whistler at the time. Every now then, however, there was a more tongue-in-cheek answer, such as when Ted Pryce-Jones was asked in 1982 if he thought the Whistler Resort Association should endorse candidates in the municipal election and responded “I don’t think they should endorse anyone.”

Some topics were repeated often, though from different angles, and some are still discussed in Whistler today, such as questions about affordability and finding accommodations or snow conditions and predictions for the winter season. For anyone interested in past Whistler thoughts and opinions, each Thursday the Whistler Museum’s Whistorical blog has been posting a “Whistler’s Answers” from the past – we are currently in 1986!

READ MOREREAD MORE

Finding Familiar FacesFinding Familiar Faces

February 18, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

It is not uncommon to head off on a trip and find yourself running into people you know from home, no matter how far you’ve gone or how small your community is. In the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, this phenomenon was often reported on in the Whistler Question’s “Notes From All Over,” which listed the comings and goings on of members of the Whistler community, from birthdays to gossip to sightings in other locales.

In the spring of 1984, Inge and Jens Nielsen headed off on a visit to Denmark and Germany. They came across a familiar name on their return trip when the flight crew was introduced; their flight from Frankfurt was captained by none other than Chuck Blaylock.

Chuck Blaylock stands in front of the Wedge Glacier, circa 1982. Blaylock Collection

A pilot for Air Canada, Chuck Blaylock grew up in Montreal before moving out to British Columbia for two years in 1953. He never moved back and his family instead settled in Vancouver. On a camping trip to Alice lake in the 1960s, Chuck decided to drive further up the road and ended up at Green Lake. Growing up in Montreal and seeing lots of families head off to cabins in the Laurentiens, Chuck’s father had told him that if he found somewhere that you could drive to in a few hours and be at a lake, he should build a cabin there. It happened that Capilano Highlands Ltd. was selling lots in Emerald Estates and the Blaylocks purchased one right on the lake.

Before working for Air Canada, Chuck had played Junior hockey and had played internationally. The combination of a lakefront property and winters with three feet of ice on Green Lake meant that Chuck, who remained an avid hockey player, became known for informal hockey games. He kept a light outside the house that could illuminate nighttime games and he would clean a good sized rink, eventually even buying a snowblower.

Chuck Blaylock dressed to play. Whistler Question Collection, 1993

With no hockey arena in Whistler until late 1992, Chuck was part of negotiations to have Whistler teams come down for games when the arena in Squamish opened in 1978 and helped found the Whistler Hockey Association with Bill Barrett, Tom Hickey and others. Whenever hockey was being organized in Whistler from that time on, Chuck was sure to be involved.

Chuck also instructed for Jim McConkey at the ski school on Whistler Mountain and became very involved in the small ski area community. In an oral history interview in 2011, Chuck remembered that once they got telephones installed, it was not uncommon for Emerald residents who were out of town to call their neighbours to check on their property. Neighbours let each other know where the key had been left out and Chuck would often go over to neighbours’ houses to check on their pipes and the snowload on the roof. As Whistler and its needs grew, Chuck became part of the Whistler Health Planning Society (renamed in 1985 to the Whistler Health Care Society) and volunteered his time for numerous organizations and projects.

Upon hearing that Chuck was piloting their flight, Inge Nielsen sent a note up to the captain. In return, she, Jens, and their 12-year-old niece Iben who was coming to visit Whsitler for three weeks were all invited up to tour the cockpit. Inge described it as “incredible to see the swoop of the horizon through the wrap-around windows” and the June 7, 1984 edition of the Question thanked Chuck for “safely spiriting them home.”

READ MOREREAD MORE