Tag: Andy Petersen

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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The Final Days of the Scotia Creek Water SystemThe Final Days of the Scotia Creek Water System

January 28, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

It’s not uncommon for a cold snap to result in frozen pipes that can lead to burst pipes and the ensuing damages and clean up. In November 1985, a sudden temperature drop to record lows between -22 and -24°C (reportedly -50°C with wind chill) caused pipes to freeze and burst in the Whistler Professional Building, the Blackcomb Lodge, and the Keg Restaurant, as well as various houses and condos. This cold snap also froze a pipe on the other side of the valley, specifically the 2 inch pipe that serviced the Scotia Creek Water System.

Until the late 1960s, some residents of Alta Lake Road had running water only in the summer, when they put in a temporary aboveground line from Scotia Creek, while others got their water from an aboveground line that the PGE had installed to service the railway townsite. As skiing began to develop on Whistler Mountain, Dick Fairhurst and Andy Petersen began work on an underground line to service houses along Alta Lake. With the help of other members of Scotia Creek Water Improvements Society (mostly when they were up on the weekends) and a digger from the Valleaus, they dug a trench, blasted through rocks, laid a 2 inch pipe (residents decided the more standard 4 inch pipe would be too expensive), and filled it all back in. Looking back on the water system, Andy recalled “It was a big achievement, especially on next to no money.” For the next eighteen years, as Whistler Mountain grew, the Resort Municipality of Whistler was founded, and Blackcomb Mountain opened, this pipe supplied water to about 40 houses along the lake.

The Whistler Hostel’s location next to Alta Lake came in useful when the water system froze and they installed a pump on the lake. Whistler Question Collection, 1994

On November 27, 1985, the waterline froze, leaving these 40 houses without water. At first it was unclear whether the problem was that the watersource, a reservoir upstream of the intake on Scotia Creek, was frozen solid or if it was the main pipe running underneath Alta Lake Road. By mid-December, it was determined that parts of the line were frozen. Alta Lake Road residents were bringing water over from the town centre and relying on friends and the recently-opened KOA campground for showers and laundry, with Jacquie Pope sending “a bathtub full” of roses to those helping out through the Whistler Question’s “Bricks & Roses.” The Whistler Youth Hostel (formerly Cypress Lodge) had installed a pump in Alta Lake and were using it for drinking water. Roger Stacey, Alta Lake Road resident and president of the Scotia Creek Water Improvements Society, told the paper that this freeze “could be the end of the whole system.”

This prediction led to increased talk of the municipality assuming responsibility for providing water to the area. After the RMOW was created in 1975, the municipality had assumed responsibility for water systems in other pre-existing neighbourhoods, such as Alpine Meadows, and a water study released in the early 1980s suggested building a municipal water system that would service the Alta Lake Road area and beyond, but the timing suggested for that project was 1992.

By the end of January 1986, houses between the Youth Hostel and Chaplainville were expected to be without water for the foreseeable future as the reservoir had thawed but there was still no water flowing through the pipe. Finally, in April 1986, five months after the pipe froze, the Scotia Creek Water System had water running through it again. However, the line was badly damaged, working at only half pressure and needing almost constant repairs as cracks caused water to bubble up out of the ground.

Andy Petersen digs in his yard where water has been bubbling up from the damaged pipe. Whistler Question Collection, 1986

In May, Stacey appealed for municipal support to pay for the new water line and when the 1986 budget was approved it included $1,985,000 for “water system extension.” On June 2, council voted in favour of paying half of the $200,000 cost of a new water line for Alta Lake Road. Property owners were given the option to finance the cost of their portion over a 25-year period and were notified that a “water improvement district” was going to be created in order to levy the taxes to pay for the system.

Construction of the water supply at Twenty-One Mile Creek, which replaced the Whistler Creek water system as the municipality’s primary water system, began over the summer and was completed by the end of the year. Houses along Alta Lake Road were once again connected to an operational water system, though it would be a few more years before other neighbourhoods such as Emerald Estates were brought onto a municipal system.

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Having a BlastHaving a Blast

November 1, 2022 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

When talking to people from Alta Lake and Whistler there are many stories that are almost universal- people come to Whistler for a visit and stay for life, and along that journey most people have experienced housing woes. One experience that I did not expect to be shared among so many locals was the stories of working in drilling and blasting. While the rocky, mountainous landscape draws people to Whistler from around the world, it also creates additional engineering challenges. Lots of rock needed to be moved for the rapid growth of Whistler, and blasting was a relatively well paying summer job.

The Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), also known as the ‘Province’s Great Expense’ arrived in Alta Lake in 1914, bringing tourism as well as an increase in mining and forestry. The earliest known commercial mining in the area was on Whistler Mountain around 1910, with Green Lake Mining and Milling Company running ten small claims between 1000 and 1300 metres elevation.

Some of the first blasting in the valley was for mining. Here a horse is laden with dynamite bound for Jimmy Fitzsimmons’ copper mine on the north flank of Whistler Mountain, circa 1919. Rainbow Lodge can be seen in the background. Philip Collection.

Many other small operations opened and closed over the years but none struck it rich. As a word of caution, after finding an abandoned mine shaft in the mountains, some early mountaineers were pushing rocks down the shaft and set off unexploded dynamite. Nobody was hurt, but it is worth giving abandoned mines a wide berth for the many hazards they pose.

It was a logging company that gave Andy Petersen dynamite in the 1960s to help put a water line to Alta Lake Road for running water. Andy and Dick Fairhurst, owner of Cypress Lodge, had never used dynamite before. “We drilled about 27 holes and put three sticks of dynamite in each hole. Well, this thing went off. Three of them went off and boulders came up over our heads and hit the power lines. We thought we were going to take the power down. That was our experience with dynamite, but we learned.”

There were more hazards than just flying rock. During blasting and clearing of a trail along Nita Lake in 1985, Jack Demidoff and his 25-tonne hoe fell off the trail and through the ice into the lake. Whistler Question Collection.

When skiing arrived Whistler became a tourist destination in the winter but remained very quiet in summer. Many locals who worked on the mountain would have summer jobs in construction and blasting, including Murray Coates who was in ski patrol and had a blasting company. Fellow patrollers, Brian Leighton and Bruce Watt also worked some summers blasting. “There were no safety precautions”, Bruce recalled on his podcast ‘Whistler Stories that Need to be Told’, “It was just get out there and don’t be a wimp”.

Brian Leighton had a similar experience. “I was way over my head in what I was doing. But no one died, no one was hurt.” One memorable moment occurred after loading some explosives into the drill holes while creating Whistler’s sewage system. “I said to Murray, ‘I think the trucks parked a little close here.’ He said, ‘No, no, no, it’s fine.’ So we get underneath the truck and he hits the blasting machine. Sure enough, a rock the size of a soccer ball goes through the rear window of the truck. I mean we were safe, but the truck not so much”.

An dog finds refuge from the rain beneath a Wedgemont Blasting truck parked in village, not unlike Murray Coates and Brian Leighton hiding from the falling rocks. Whistler Question Collection.

Before she became a lawyer and later the Mayor of Whistler, Nancy Wilhelm-Morden also worked as a driller and blaster for the Department of Highways. She wasn’t so worried about rocks landing on her, but as her boss watched closely to make sure she was setting the dynamite correctly, “I was always worried that he was going to spit this horrible chewing tobacco on the back of my head.”

The Whistler Museum has more stories about drilling and blasting than will fit in one article, but nowadays we are much more familiar with the sound of avalanche bombs. Hopefully they are ringing throughout the valley again soon!

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It’s Women’s History Month!It’s Women’s History Month!

October 13, 2018 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

October may be more widely known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but in 1992 the Government of Canada also designated October as Women’s History Month to “celebrate the achievements and contributions of women and girls across the country and throughout our history.”

Though any month could have been selected, October includes two important dates: the International Day of the Girl on October 11 and Persons Day on October 18.

Persons Day commemorates the decision Edwards vs Canada (AG) – also known as the Persons Case.  On October 18, 1929, Canada’s highest court of appeal (which at the time was in England) ruled that women are considered “persons” under the British North America Act of 1867 and should be eligible for appointment to the Canadian Senate.

Countless women have contributed to Whistler’s community over the years.  Some, such as Myrtle Philip and Nancy Greene (whose own appointment to the Senate was made possible by the Persons Case), are well known while others are less acknowledged though no less important. To celebrate Women’s History Month we’ll be sharing the stories of a few of these women, beginning with a group of young women who first came to the valley in the 1950s.

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

Eunice “Kelly” Forster, Better Gray, June Tidball, Jacquie Pope and Florence Strachan were all teachers in the Lower Mainland when they first visited Alta Lake.  Together, the five managed to purchase a lot along the railway from the Massons.  While the asking price was $2,500, the group was able to get a reduced price of $1,500 due to their obvious love of the area and offer to pay in cash.  This price included a furnished summer cottage, dock, rowboat and toolshed.

The cottage, named Witsend after a particularly long and rain-soaked voyage up from Vancouver, became the women’s summer home for the next 10 years.  In 1956, some of them even bought the lot next door.  Sadly, Witsend burned down in November 1965.

June Tidball sold her shares after the fire, but by this time most of the women had ties to Alta Lake and the others remained in the valley, at least part-time.  Kelly Forster had married Dick Fairhurst in 1958 (the same Dick Fairhurst who would later recall Paul Golnick) and moved to Cypress Lodge.  She and Dick were active members of the growing community and Cypress Lodge acted as the base for the Alta Lake Sailing Club.

Cypress Lodge as seen from the lake. Fairhurst Collection.

In 1965, Jacquie bought another lot on Alta Lake and, with help from friends, had a house built in 1965.  She kept this house, nicknamed the Vatican, until 2001 when she moved to Squamish.

This left Witsend and the other shared lot to Betty and Florence.  Betty kept the site of Witsend until 2000.  Next door, Florence had the lot cleared and a house built under the supervision of Andy Petersen.  She and Andy married in 1967.

Even before retiring and moving to the house on the lake permanently in 1983, Florence was active in many of the community groups in first Alta Lake and then later Whistler.

The Whistler Museum and Archives cookbook committee, April 1997: Janet Love-Morrison, Florence Petersen (founder of the Whistler Museum and Archives Society), Darlyne Christian and Caroline Cluer.  Petersen Collection.

In 1986 she founded the Whistler Museum & Archives Society and, with a group of volunteers, gathered the beginnings of our current collection.  While serving as a marriage commissioner Florence performed over 1,000 services.

In recognition of her volunteer contributions, Florence was made Citizen of the Year in 1986 and awarded the Freedom of the Municipality of Whistler in 2012, the second woman to receive this honour (the first was Myrtle Philip).  Florence passed away in 2012 and is remembered today in Florence Petersen Park.

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