Tag: Alta Lake

Hard Times in Whistler: the Jardine-Neiland Family – (pt.1)Hard Times in Whistler: the Jardine-Neiland Family – (pt.1)

March 17, 2012 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 5 Comments

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In Whistler, history is still being re-shaped- with every new oral history and piece of information the story of Whistler’s past becomes ever richer. While editing Florence Petersen’s upcoming book on Whistler’s pioneers, Sarah (the museum’s collection manager) connected with long-time Museum member Louise Betts (née Jardine) who has provided a great deal of insight into her family’s history. The Jardine-Neiland family was involved in early logging in the valley, and their life was not an easy one.

Although Rainbow Lodge was Whistler’s first incarnation as a tourist destination, beginning in 1914, other families faced tremendous hardship as they carved a life out for themselves in the Whistler Valley. The Jardines were no exception.

John Jardine and his friend Thomas Neiland had been working for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in Squamish after they returned from World War I. John met an unfortunate end when a speeder he was travelling on was hit by a train in 1918. He left behind two small children and a heavily pregnant wife. John had been working 10-hour days, earning $2.50 a day, a total of between $50 and $60 per month.

Photograph of John Jardine, approximately 18 years old, taken in Scotland before he immigrated to Canada.

Since her husband had been killed in a work-related accident his widow, Lizzie, was given a $35 per month compensation, while the children received an additional sum of 25 cents a day for each child until the age of 16. When John died, Thomas Neiland helped Lizzie to pack up her house, and she moved with her young children, Jack and Jenny, up to Kelowna to stay with her parents. While they were in Kelowna, she gave birth to Bob.

Before long, Tom Neiland offered her work, keeping house for him in North Vancouver, and the family of four was once again on the move. Tom had spent many years working as a conductor for the PGE Railway, but he had always wanted to work for himself.  When the opportunity arose in 1921 to purchase a good cedar wood and start his own logging business in Alta Lake, he jumped at the chance. The land he acquired at Alta Lake was owned by two men – Dr. A.G. Naismith, a Kamloops pathologist, and Harry Horstman (for more on Horstman, click here).

At first the family lived in the Alta Lake townsite, but after eight months they moved down to a house built by Thomas Neiland by Alpha Lake; logging cedar logs to be exported to Japan.

Lizzie continued to work as a “housekeeper,” ostensibly to keep her compensation, which she only retained so long as she didn’t remarry. It appears that when she became pregnant by Tom Neiland, they decided to marry, likely due to the social pressures that existed at that time. Although she lost all of her compensation, the children retained theirs. Lizzie Jardine and Thomas Neiland, who was in his fifties, were married in the spring of 1922 in North Vancouver.

Formal portrait of Thomas and Lizzie Neiland taken in the 1940s

Part two of the Jardine-Neiland family’s story will be posted next week.

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The Mysterious Harry HorstmanThe Mysterious Harry Horstman

March 3, 2012 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 7 Comments

One of the most mysterious Whistler characters is Henry ‘Harry” Horstman.  The details are pretty slim.  We know that he moved to Alta Lake sometime around 1913 from Kansas.  He pre-empted two pieces of land – one between Nita and Alpha Lakes and another at the end of Alpha Lake.

He came to the area with dreams of striking it rich through mining.  He mined on Sproatt Mountain for copper, but always had a hope of finding gold.  Horstman had a small farm near Nita Lake on which he raised chickens and grew vegetables. He would haul his goods on the train tracks using a cart he built himself.  Harry would supply fresh produce and eggs to Rainbow Lodge and was of course willing to sell to anyone willing to pay.

Harry Hortsman on Sproatt Mountain, probably not far from his mining claim. Harry first came to Alta Lake with dreams of finding a rich copper vein. Unfortunately, this dream never came true.

Jack Jardine recalled visiting Harry and having bacon and eggs with him – Horstman kept his greasy frying pan in the woodpile, of all places.  In an interview conducted in 1991 Jack recalled:

[…] we’d go to old Harry Horstman’s place there and he’d be having bacon and eggs for breakfast or something like that and he would just take his frying pan and he’d walk over and he turned it upside down on the woodpile, that’s what he did to his bacon grease.  He just turned it upside down on his kindling pile.  And then when he used his frying pan he just picked it up and put it in the stove. […] I mean the bacon used to hang on the wall on a piece of string!  You went to hang it from the wall, the same as a ham would hang from the ceiling, three or four hams hanging from the ceiling!

 Other residents didn’t really get to know Hortsman very well – often referring to him as an odd man, or only every seeing him and his beard from a distance.

Harry Hortsman at his cabin.

Horstman often led a solitary life, which is probably why we know so little about him.  Pip Brock, who often visited Alta Lake, remembers passing Horstman’s cabin on a hike one day and Harry remarked “ Gosh all Dammit. This hiking is getting to be quite a fad. You’re the second party this year!”

In the summer of 1923 the Alta Lake Community Club held their first official gathering at Rainbow Lodge. It was an informal picnic and Horstman was designated as the official coffee provider.  He took this position of responsibility so seriously has actually wore a suit, tie and fedora to the picnic!

First official meeting of the Alta Lake Community Club in 1923. Harry is pictured here on the right carrying the coffee pot, as part of his duties as ‘Official Coffee Provider.” Check out the full suit and fedora!

Although Harry dug many tunnels on Sproatt Mountain, looking for copper, there of course came a time when he just couldn’t take the physical labour any longer. He retired to his cabin on Alpha Lake.  Eventually he moved to Kamloops to live the remainder of his life in a nursing home.

While we don’t really know much about Harry Horstman, his memory lives on in the name of the Horstman Glacier. In fact, the remnants of his cabin at the 5300-foot level on Sproatt Mountain can still be found. Harry would no doubt be very impressed indeed by the number of hikers passing by these days.

Image of the Hortsman Glacier on Blackcomb Mountain.
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Name Whistler’s history!Name Whistler’s history!

February 18, 2012 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Local historian Florence Petersen has been quietly working away on her book on Whistler’s pioneers for the last three years and with the help of the Whistler Museum, she hopes to get it published in the next few months. There’s only one problem…. it doesn’t have a name!

Whistler’s pioneers searching for a good name.

The book tells the story of Whistler before skiing came to the valley. Myrtle Philip and Rainbow Lodge are of course featured, but there are many other early residents whose tales are told here, including trappers, loggers, prospectors and summer cottage owners. It covers the period from about 1900 to 1965, the year the ski-hill was built.

The book can’t be published without a title, so we are running a competition in the hope that you lovely people in internet-land might be able to help us out.

If you have a good idea for a title then we would love to hear it.

There are lots of ways to enter!

–       post a comment on our blog post here

–       email collection@whistlermuseum.org

–       write on our Facebook wall at http://www.facebook.com/WhistlerMuseum

–       tweet us at @WhistlerMuseum

If we select your title you’ll win a free museum membership and a copy of the book signed by the author, and, of course, the GLORY of naming a book! Closing date for entries is March 1st.

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Love and romance — Whistler styleLove and romance — Whistler style

February 11, 2012 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 5 Comments

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we thought we would share one of Whistler’s lesser known love stories.

Bob Jardine first came to Whistler around 1921 with his family. He spent his childhood here, attending the first school in what was then Alta Lake. Later, at the age of 21, he joined the Air Force, where he spent the next 28 years. It was during his time with the Air Force that he met Stella Stracken.

Bob Jardine: quite possibly the handsomest Whistler pioneer

Bob worked in the fire department and Stella worked in the air man’s canteen as a steward. Although Bob knew Stella slightly, they never really spent a lot of time together.

One day, Bob received a telegram from his brother, which stated that he was going to be in Vancouver and asked if Bob would be able to go and meet him. The Jardine brothers hadn’t seen each other in five years, but the Air Force wouldn’t give Bob the time off.

During an argument with his superior over the matter, he was asked if he wanted a discharge. Bob said yes and he was given $100 for clothes and 30 days leave. So Bob went to Vancouver and had a month-long party with his brother. However, Bob became lonely and began looking for some work to fill up his time away from the Air Force. He ended up getting a job as a telephone lineman with the PGE Railway.

One day he went to work on a telephone pole near Function Junction. His boss asked him to climb the pole and make sure the lines were properly hooked up by calling the Vancouver operator and then ask to be connected to an outside number. Jardine pulled out his address book and happened across the name Stella Stracken. He couldn’t even remember who the girl was.

Bob decided to call the number anyways and her mother happened to answer the phone. He asked where Stella was and was informed that she had gone to work. He asked Stella’s mother to inform her daughter that he was coming to Vancouver that weekend and intended to take her out to dinner. That’s right — Bob Jardine scored a date with a girl he barely knew from the top of a telephone pole without even speaking to her directly.

So, Stella showed up for the date and Bob took her to a café. Not long into the date, Bob said, “This is a helluva time to mention this, but why don’t we get married?” At Stella’s justifiably shocked expression, Bob went on to say that they were never going to make a better connection with anybody else like the one they were making at that very moment, with each other.

Somehow, over the next two hours Bob convinced Stella to marry him. They were married for 58 years until Stella passed away.

Bob and Stella on their wedding day.
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