Category: Whistler: A Town

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

A New Kind of GovernmentA New Kind of Government

June 9, 2012 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

Ask about the beginnings of municipal politics in Whistler and two things will unfailingly be mentioned: the year 1975 and the name Pat Carleton.  In the early 1970s Whistler had yet to gain a local governing body.  The area including Whistler was governed directly by the province and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District.  Change began in 1974 when the province became interested in developing tourism and enacted a land freeze in the area, preventing private land owners from determining the development of the valley for financial gain.  Their report concluded that a strong local government was the solution.  The result was the Resort Municipality of Whistler Act and the creation of a new kind of government in 1975.

This new resort municipality was to be unlike any other resort or municipality in the country.  Canada had resorts, such as Banff, where a local advisory committee provided guidance to the senior level of government with absolute control over the resort.  Canada also had municipalities.  Whistler’s new governing body was to be unique.  Property owners and residents would elect their own mayor and three aldermen.  What made Whistler different, however, was the fourth alderman, appointed by the province to oversee financial isssues and maintain the interests of the province.

Whistler’s first council. Left to Right: Bob Bishop, Al Raine, Geoff Pearce (municipal clerk & treasurer), Pat Carleton, John Hetherington, Garry Watson

 On September 6, 1975, the first municipal council was sworn into office.  The three elected aldermen, Garry Watson, John Hetherington, and Bob Bishop, were joined by Al Raine, the provincial appointee, and these four representatives were led by Whistler’s first mayor, Pat Carleton.

Many residents of Whistler gathered to watch the swearing in of their first elected government by Judge C.I. Walker.  Some, however, were unable to attend the ceremony due to a last minute change in location.  Originally the ceremony was planned to take place at the Roundhouse Lodge on the top of Whistler Mountain.  Free gondola and chairlift rides were provided for those who wished to attend, but some Whistler residents decided to take a more active approach.  Paul and Jane Burrows had hiked up the mountain with their dog to attend the ceremony, unaware that as they were hiking the ceremony had been moved to the base of Whistler Mountain at Creekside.  Paul, president of the Alta Lake Ratepayers Association and founder of the Whistler Question, had run against Pat Carleton for mayor and was looking forward to watching Whistler officially gain a municipal government.  Unable to download their dog on a chairlift, the Burrows were sadly unable to get down the mountain in time and missed the swearing in of Whistler’s first aldermen and mayor.

Pat Carleton. Whistler Mayor 1975 – 1982.

Like many before him, Pat Carleton, a coffee salesman, first came to Whistler on a fishing trip in 1956.  He fell in love with the area and built a house on Alpha Lake with his wife, Kay, which the family used for holidays. Pat and Kay retired to their home in Whistler in 1971 and Pat became an active member of the community through the Whistler Chamber of Commerce and the Alta Lake Ratepayers Association. From 1975 to 1982 he served four terms as Whistler’s mayor.

From the get-go council faced a daunting task: to build a resort.  Their plan was to develop a Town Centre on the dump at the base of both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, a goal not made any easier by the valley’s lack of a sewage system and opposition from private land owners who wanted to develop the resort on their own properties. Council had few resources, apart from a gaval presented to the mayor, and no municipal building.  Meetings were held in various locations such as the Carleton’s garage and the lunchroom of Myrtle Philip School.  Despite these difficulties, the municipal governments under Pat worked endlessly to shape Whistler into the resort it is today.

The early development of Whistler did not progress smoothly.  Early in 1976 the community of Whistler and Council agreed upon an official community plan which placed the new Town Centre on top of the dump at the base of both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.  This plan was strongly opposed by private land owners who formed the Whistler Development Association.  Council waited and became frustrated as provincial approval of their plan continued to be withheld.  After less than a year in office, council members voted unanimously to resign if the province refused to support the offical community plan and Pat Carleton, Al Raine, and Garry Watson travelled to Victoria with their resignations in Pat’s pocket.  They met with Municipal Affairs Minister Hugh Curtis who had recently received a delegation from the Whistler Development Association including planners and large fancy model.  Luckily, Curtis had been unimpressed by this proposal and approval was given for the plans of the community.  Whistler’s mayor returned home with the resignations still in his pocket.

Early stages of Whistler Village construction, October 1979.

The first seven years after the incorporation of Whistler as a resort municipality saw dramatic changes to the area.  On August 21, 1978, Pat turned the first sod on the Town Centre site and the construction of today’s Village began.  By then the problem of a sewage system in the valley had mostly been solved in 1977 with the opening of Whistler’s first sewage treatment plant.  At the official opening of Blackcomb Mountain in 1980 Pat was there to do the honours.  The early work of Whistler’s first council and its first mayor was instrumental in creating the resort that Whistler is today.  In September of 1982 Pat Carleton announced he was not going to seek re-election and was succeeded in December by Mark Angus, Whistler’s second mayor.

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A short history of the Whistler MuseumA short history of the Whistler Museum

February 4, 2012 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Happy Birthday to us!

In the summer of 1986 Florence Petersen began fulfilling a promise. You see, Florence had made a promise to Myrtle Phillip and Dick Fairhurst that their stories would not be forgotten. Phillip and Fairhurst were concerned that the early days of the valley would be forgotten entirely as skiing became the dominant activity.

That summer Florence, with a group of dedicated volunteers, set to work in creating a museum in Whistler. Unfortunately, Myrtle Phillip passed away in August of that year, and did not get to see the new museum become a reality.

Florence (at left) and Myrtle share a laugh.

As items for the museum were gathered, a temporary showcase was constructed in an 11 by 14 foot room in the back of the Whistler Library. In February 1987, 25 years ago, the Whistler Museum and Archives Society (WMAS) became an official non-profit organization.

By January of 1988 the WMAS, located in Function Junction, had its own temporary space in the old municipal hall building, renovated through the generosity of the Whistler Rotary Club. The museum, which officially opened in June of 1989, showcased replicas of Myrtle Phillip’s sitting room, information on Whistler’s natural history as well as exhibits on skiing and pioneer life.

Florence poses with the new Museum sign in 1988 – this same sign adorns the side of the Museum today.

Between June and September of that year, the brand-spanking-new museum had attracted over 2,000 visitors. That number increased to over 3,800 visitors the following summer. Not too shabby Florence!

In 1995 the Whistler Museum and Archives scored temporary space in a prime location on Main Street beside the library. The new space was 1,000 square feet smaller than that in the Function Junction location, but was definitely more accessible and visible. In the first month alone of operating in the new space, the Whistler Museum welcomed 2,168 visitors.

Thirteen years later, in 2008, WMAS closed its doors to prepare for its fourth move — a new home in the adjacent structure that had previously housed the Whistler Public Library. By the end of 2009 WMAS had re-opened with a brand new interior and brand-new permanent exhibit, with support from the municipality, the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, the Community Foundation of Whistler, the American Friends of Whistler and the community at large.

If you haven’t seen the new Museum, you really are missing out.

So thank you Florence and thank you to the army of volunteers over the years. Without you we wouldn’t have the awesome museum we have today and, frankly, we wouldn’t have these sweet jobs!

To celebrate our birthday, we will be holding a fundraiser at Creekbread. Please click here for all the details.

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Eldon Beck: The Brains behind Whistler VillageEldon Beck: The Brains behind Whistler Village

November 12, 2011 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 9 Comments

When Whistler Mountain entered the ski scene during the winter of 1965-66 it was a pretty big deal, but is was still “just” a ski hill. It wasn’t until the 1980s, once Blackcomb had opened and Whistler Village had been constructed that Whistler’s trajectory to international mega-resort was set.

Eldon Beck, an American landscape architect who had made a name for himself working at Vail, Colorado, was the village’s design mastermind, and the Museum has a bunch of photographs and a 2005 oral history with Beck which give some cool insights into this seminal period.

With local developers and the provincial government recognizing that the Whistler Valley had the potential to completely revolutionize the ski world, the Resort Municipality of Whistler was established in 1975, the first “Resort Municipality” in Canada. By this point, plans were already underway for the construction of ski lifts on Blackcomb and a centrally located, purpose-built village to service the twin ski hills.

Designs were solicited, but they left much to be desired, so in the summer of 1978 Al Raine visited Beck in Vail for some outside input:

Eldon Beck back in Whistler, 2005.

Al came to town and described what they were doing at Whistler, and I’d never heard of Whistler. So Al pulled the [existing Whistler Village] plan out and said, “You know, something’s not right with this. Could you take a look at it?” … It was basically a little grid plan. It was like a little city, and a lot of the images felt like a mini-Vancouver… there were major roadways crossing from one side of the Village to the other. There was a pedestrian [spine], but it had these really very heavy duty auto crossings over it. So you can kind of imagine both cars and people running together at critical locations… The land always tells you what to do. In this case, there was a plan imposed upon that. That was the major problem.

Beck’s initial comments were intriguing enough to earn an invite to Whistler to help amend the designs. During this initial visit Beck spent a lot of time walking around, getting to know the lay of the land and paying close attention to sight-lines. At one point Beck climbed to the top of a spruce tree and recognized the potential for a clear view of Fissile Mountain if the Village Gate was designed just right (thanks Eldon!). Later that day he reconvened with the resort development bigwigs in their corporate office:

I don’t know whose garage it was, but we went into a garage, and the Council was there and they were kind of all gathered around and we said hello and shook hands. This was a Saturday morning and they said, “We have a meeting tomorrow at two. Could you have something for us at two.” And I said, “Of course.”…

What I found in a lot of my design process, I kind of load my brain up and then I sleep on it. So at about four in the morning I woke up and I could really see it pretty clearly. So I got up and basically drew the plan and we worked on it then during the morning, but we had it ready for the two o’clock meeting, and presented it. And they all said, “Hey, that’s what we want to do.” It was supposed to have been a modification of the existing plan, [but] it really became pretty apparent that that was not the way to do it.

And so the Village design adopted a completely new course, following Beck’s lead.

From these initial sketches further details were hammered out.

This early sketch shows the attention to detail and 3-dimensional layout that went into Beck’s designs.

Beck (at centre) was hired on to oversee the project’s construction through 1979 & 1980. Village Square, behind the group pictured here, turned out to be Beck’s favourite part of the completed village.

Beck was initially frustrated by the lack of control he was given with the details of individual buildings, but over time, came to appreciate what he had initially considered to be “dozens of mistakes and imperfections.”  The end result was sufficient to have him called back years later to oversee the design of Village North, Main Street and Blackcomb Village as well.

What are your thoughts? Is the Village a masterpiece or glorified mall? Does the consistency of design lead to a comforting or contrived feel?

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Power Up!Power Up!

October 22, 2011 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Throughout BC we are blessed with an abundance of mighty rivers from which we get almost 90% of our electricity. Here in Whistler we’re surrounded by hydro-generating stations of all sizes, notably the IPP on Fitzsimmons Creek which provides for all of Whistler-Blackcomb’s electricity needs. [Correction – it produces the equivalent of all W-B’s electricity needs, but the power is sent to the province’s main power grid.]

A helpful little diagram of W-B’s Fitzsimmons Creek hydro-electricity plant.

Considering this natural bounty, it’s hard to believe that a mere 50 years ago Alta Lake residents had still not entered the modern electric era.

As Whistlerites have always been wont to do, a few residents took matters into their own hands. Bob Williamson installed a small wind-powered turbine at the south end of Alta Lake but it could only power a few lights when the wind picked up. Dick Fairhurst was more successful with the water-wheel and generator he installed on Scotia Creek in 1954, providing steady, reliable power for his Cypress Lodge (the old hostel building next to Rainbow Park). In later years the Philips had also purchased a gas-powered generator for Rainbow Lodge. But aside from these few enterprising DIY-ers, Alta Lake residents continued on with pre-electric living.

Alta Lake resident Bob Williamson working on a power line, circa 1940s.

Heating was mostly from firewood (some residents had oil or coal-burning furnaces) and bed-time reading was done by candlelight or gas lantern. Refrigeration was accomplished in sheds full of thick ice blocks cut from Alta Lake in winter and insulated through the summer with sawdust from local mills.

This lack of hydro service must have been especially frustrating since high-voltage transmission lines ran through the valley as early as the 1930s, linking the Bridge River Hydro dam to Vancouver. At the same time there were plenty of plans for more hydro-development closer to home, including dams at Garibaldi Lake, Cheakamus Lake, on the Soo River and elsewhere, but that’s another story altogether.

Then in the late 1950s, BC Hydro built the Cheakamus Dam at Daisy Lake and another set of transmission lines linking Seton Portage to Squamish was constructed. Ironically, work crews for the power lines (which included a young Peter Alder, the influential ski area manager/developer who continues to call Whistler home) were even housed at the still-unserviced Rainbow Lodge for some time. Still, no infrastructure was provided to convert the 230,000 volts running through the valley into something a little more manageable for the residents of Alta Lake.

It wasn’t until November 1965, a few months before ski operations on Whistler Mountain began, that the Rainbow Substation was finally completed. It was only fitting that Alex and Myrtle Philip were the honourary guests at the opening ceremonies. In typically stylish fashion the Philips were a little late for the event, but as Alex noted, “after 54 years without hydro, what’s five minutes?”

The Philips attend the Rainbow Substation opening ceremony in typically stylish fashion, 18 November, 1965. Left to right: unidentified, Alex Philip, long-time Whistler resident and BC Hydro employe Rolley Horsey, Myrtle Philip.

Alex was granted the honour of actually flipping the switch that finally energized the valley. Unable to conceal the thrill of the moment, Alex let out an excited “I did it!” and a new era dawned upon the Whistler Valley. For the now-retired Philips this meant they could spend the winter at Alta Lake, instead of with friends in the city as they had in previous years.

The Philips tour the new Rainbow substation with an unidentified BC Hydro employee, November 18, 1965.

And so a new era dawned for the Whistler Valley, albeit a little late. According to Wladek “Walter” Zebrowski‘s biography In Search of Freedom, the arrival of electricity almost prevented Whistler’s development into the massive resort it is today. While clearing his land near what would soon become Creekside in July 1964, Zebrowski was suddenly drawn from his work by the deafening roar of a helicopter setting down nearby:

A man got out–it was Bob Brown, a surveyor for the B.C. Hydro Corporation–and he informed Wladek that a power line was going to be put through his land.The forty meter wide line with transmission towers… was to cut through the whole valley (today the centre of town with the town and and four large residential areas). The plans had been already made, the land had been prepared and many tress had been cut out. He was here just to take the last measurements as the construction was to start very soon.

The book continues to recount how Zebrowski immediately halted working and drove to Vancouver to inform Franz Wilhelmson at the GLC offices. The next day they met with B.C. Hydro Chairman Dr. Gordon Shrum and convinced them to relocate the transmission line so as not to interfere with the planned ski area and adjoining residential developments. Instead, the high transmission lines run along the west side of the valley–the more populated side during the Alta Lake era–leaving room for Whistler to develop into its current state.

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