Tag: Mons

A Family BusinessA Family Business

February 4, 2025 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Not all summer residents of Alta Lake came to the area for the fishing or a mountain holiday. When Everett Valleau moved his company, Valleau Logging Ltd., to the area in 1955, he came to log timber around Alta and Green Lakes.

Valleau Logging was a family business and over the years each of Everett’s sons (Bob, Eugene, Gerald, Howard, Laurence, Lindsay, and Ron), at least ten of his grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren all worked for the company in different capacities. The Valleaus operated from Parkhurst on Green Lake and later moved their logging camp to Mons. As skiing opened up in the area and development increased, the Valleaus formed a subsidiary company, Alta Lake Contractors Ltd., to provide excavation work, road building, and more. In 1965, they were hired by Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. to build the road from the valley to the midstation of Whistler Mountain while the logging side of the company removed the usable timber from some of the runs that were cut. The Valleaus and their crews also built roads and parking lots for the Cheakamus Inn (now Whistler Vale), the Highland Lodge, and the Alpine Villas development.

Long before the road was paved or the name of the building changed, the Valleau’s built the road up to the Cheakamus Inn. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

In 2023, the museum spoke with Karyn Smith, one of Everett’s granddaughters, who remembered coming to the area with her family each summer, though they lived on Vancouver Island throughout the rest of the year. She remembered Parkhurst as “a fun place to be” and also a busy place in the summer as it was a working camp with the mill, bunkhouses, and a dining hall, though each of Everett’s sons had their own cabin with their family. With so much family around, Karyn spent a lot of time with her cousins. The kids would often go swimming, though Karyn recalled that her grandfather was “the only adult I ever knew who would swim in Green Lake,” having grown up washing in the cold waters of Galway Bay in Ireland. They would also go on Sunday outings where they would walk down the railway tracks to go horseback riding at Buckhorn Ranch or to visit the Tapleys. Mr. Tapley (Myrtle Philip’s brother Phil) would collect their mail for them and they would have a ball game and eat the meal provided by Mrs. Tapley (Phil’s wife Doreen).

By the time they moved the logging camp to Mons, Karyn was old enough to start working as a “flunky” in the kitchen, peeling potatoes and other vegetables, fetching the meat from the walk-in freezer, doing the dishes, and keeping the coffee going. As Whistler Mountain developed more, Karyn got other jobs working at the Christiana Inn and the Highland Lodge.

Community members began Ice Stock Sliding on Alta Lake and moved to blacktop after the ice melted. Philip Collection

Throughout the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, it was not uncommon for the Valleau name to pop up whenever there was a community project that needed support and an unexpected job that needed doing. In 1956, when a train crash led to three boxcars loaded with lumber jammed in place and blocking the line, the railway’s equipment couldn’t move the cars. The Valleaus used their logging machinery to pry out the cars and then drag them up the track and into the forest, where they are now a popular destination.

The Valleaus also offered office space in their administration building at Mons to serve as a post office after it moved out of Rainbow Lodge in 1966 and made their kitchen at Mons available to the Alta Lake Community Club to prepare fundraising dinners. When some residents of Whistler started up an Ice Stock Sliding Club during a cold but snowless winter, the Valleaus set aside an area of blacktop for them to continue playing throughout the year. In the early 1960s, when the Alta Lake District Ratepayers Association applied to lease acreage for a dump the Valleaus donated equipment and labour to excavate ditches and fill them in once full. They also provided equipment to help the Alta Lake Sports Club build a bridge over Fitzsimmons Creek when they were building Nordic ski trails around Lost Lake. Laurence Valleau was named Whistler’s Citizen of the Year in 1974.

Miss Valleau Logging Kristi King rides atop the Valleau float in the Pemberton parade. Whistler Question Collection, 1980

As Whistler became larger and more emphasis was placed on the resort development of the area, Laurence and his sons Rick and Dave moved Valleau Logging to Pemberton.

Cooking at MonsCooking at Mons

June 15, 2021 Whistler Museum 2 Comments

While a disused logging camp may not seem like the most likely place to find a great meal, that is exactly what could be found at Mons Crossing from 1978 to 1981. The Cookhouse, described as a “little hut by the tracks,” opened in June 1978 to provide breakfast and lunch to local contractors, workers, and any residents or visitors who chose to stop by.

*The Cookhouse at Mons. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.*

Everett Valleau moved Valleau Logging Ltd. to the Alta Lake and Green Lake areas in 1955. The company was a family affair, with Everett’s sons Laurance, Eugene, Bob, Howard, Ron and Lindsay all working there; over the years, at least ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren would also work for Valleau Logging Ltd. As Whistler Mountain, and then the Resort Municipality of Whistler, grew, the Valleaus expanded their business to include excavation work, road building, and more. They established a logging camp at Mons near the railway and offered space to the community to build a firehall, operate a post office, play horseshoes, and even pave an area for ice stock sliding. The logging camp was in use until the Valleaus decided to move their business to Pemberton in the 1970s.

In 1978, the RMOW granted Jan Systad and Helene Allen temporary permission to operate the camp’s cookhouse as a home-made breakfast and lunch food service. Before they could open, however, the building needed some work done. The building inspector reported that the interior of the building required a thorough cleaning, the installation of two fire extinguishers and a new sink, and repairs for the rear porch in order to make it the main entrance instead of having customers enter through the kitchen. Given these changes, the health inspector gave the business the go ahead.

*The Cookhouse had separate entrances for those doing the cooking and those doing the eating. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.*

From accounts we’ve seen, the Cookhouse was a big success with Whistler residents. In August 1978 the Whistler Question food column called the Cookhouse’s pancakes “a dream” and “a perfect cure for the Monday morning blues,” describing them as “light and fluffy with a deep, rich flavour… served last week with a pinch of raspberry and maple syrup.”

The Cookhouse operated as a seasonal restaurant, opening in the spring and then closing in November. With no social media, opening and closing dates traveled partially by word of mouth. In 1979, Question staff and other hungry customers arrived at the Cookhouse only to find that it had been closed for the season since the Friday before. When the Cookhouse opened back up in April 1980, it reportedly opened “with an air of secrecy about the operation.” Systad and her assistant Donna (if anyone knows Donna’s last name, please let us know!) told the Question that they “didn’t want to get overwhelmed on a Monday morning by a crowd whipped into a home-cooking frenzy due to advertising,” instead opting for a slower start as word of its opening was passed around Whistler. Despite the lack of formal advertising, there was a steady stream of customers at the Cookhouse, a testament to the quality of the food.

*Jan Systad serves Christoper Systad at the final closing of the Cookhouse in November. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.*

The Cookhouse only operated for four years before closing permanently in November 1981. Beginning in January 1982, however, Systad continued to serve her “much-sought after home-cooked goodies” from the Husky in today’s Creekside. She also took over the operation of the deli, grocery store, and laundry facilities at the Husky. The buildings from the Valleau logging camp, including the Cookhouse, were removed from Mons and the area grew into the industrial centre it is today.