In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1984. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.
Some context for this week’s question: The Whistler Golf Course opened in mid-April 1984. Though the golf course had got its start in 1973 as a nine-hole course, it had only opened as its current 18-hole course in August 1983. This meant that 1984 would be the first full season for the Whistler Golf Course as we know it today.
Question: What do you think of the condition of the Whistler Golf Course at this time of year?
Karl Harkey – Golf Course Worker – Vancouver
The greens are in great shape right now. The fairways are still a little soft but it’s a lot better than I had expected. I thought there would be a lot of mud.
Dave Eastham – Consultant – Tapley’s Farm
Great. The greens are really nice. I was out the first day as well (the course opened for its second season last Thursday).
Geoff Power – Businessman – Alpine Meadow
It’s great. The course is way better than I expected. I expected it to be a lot wetter, but this is my second day in a row playing and my feet are still dry.
In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1984. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.
Some context for this week’s question: There were no fast food restaurants in Whistler in 1984 and opinion was divided on how such an establishment would fit into Whistler’s highly planned village.
Question: Do you think a fast food restaurant, such as McDonald’s, is a good idea for Whistler?
Jeff Clarke – Lift Operations Manager – Green Lake
No. I don’t think the concept would fit in and it probably wouldn’t fit in with the decor of the village. Most of the food here is pretty reasonable, but the lower price would be nice.
Janice Shene – Publicist – Winnipeg
Yes, because everything is so expensive here. It would be nice to have a meal without breaking a $50 traveller’s cheque. But a McDonald’s wouldn’t work, something like a quick salad place would be better.
In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1984. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.
Some context for this week’s question: We can’t actually find anything about this in the Whistler Question from the time, but we assume that Whistler Mountain announced the opening of the Village Chair, which ran approximately the same lift line as the Village Gondola to Olympic Station, during the summer of 1984. This would have been part of an effort to expand summer offerings in the resort.
Question: What do you think of Whistler Mountain opening Village Chair during the summer?
Debbie O’Mara – Administrative Secretary – Brio
Fabulous! The Village Chair being open this summer will further enhance an already action-packed summer program for Whistler this year. Lorne Borgal (President of Whistler Mountain Ski Corp.) appears to be the kind of person that makes an idea materialize rather than waiting for it to land at the bottom of the Olive Chair.
Sjaan Di Lalla – Hotel Manager – Alpine Meadows
I think it’s great. It provides more for people to do once they are here. Last summer we had a lot of requests from people who wanted to go up.
Andy Metcalf – Ski Tech – Nesters
It gives the opportunity for the tourists here to go up the mountain and see the development in the town centre and surrounding area. It’s for people who wouldn’t otherwise walk up. It will be a secondary thing to the town centre; people won’t come all the way here just to use the lift, but when they are here they’ll probably use it.
The first official campground inside municipal boundaries was the KOA (Kampgrounds of America) Campground, on the land that is now Spruce Grove.
Before the campground opened, people who wanted to camp in Whistler stayed in their campers and cars in the municipal day skier lots and lift company parking lots at Creekside and Blackcomb Base 2, managed by Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain respectively.
In 1981, the official position of the municipality stated that campers should park overnight at the Alpha Lake Aggregates pit by Function Junction. However, this was a long way from the ski slopes and campers were found far more often in the lots close to the lifts. Extended overnight stays were accepted and, in some cases, welcomed in the parking lots. Blackcomb even installed hookups so campers had electricity while staying in the Base 2 parking lot.
Rows of campers staying in the Creekside day skier parking lot in 1981. Camping in the day skier lots was accepted until Whistler got an official campground in 1985. Whistler Question Collection.
Ruth Buzzard had purchased a 15.2 hectare property running along both sides of Fitzsimmons Creek, north of White Gold, in 1980. After a difficult approval process, the KOA Kampground, or Whistler Campground as it became known, finally opened in November 1985.
Whistler Campground billed itself as a year-round camping resort boasting a hot tub, sauna, pond skating rink, hook-ups and a free shuttle bus to the Village. To better cater to winter weekenders, the campground allowed visitors to leave their RVs in the overflow parking during the week for a discount, allowing visitors to drive to their campers each week without pulling them up and down the Sea to Sky Highway.
With the campground finally available, parking overnight became illegal in the municipal day skier lots. This was both to encourage campers to move to the campground and to allow plowing of the parking overnight.
Additionally, in 1984, an amendment was made to the zoning bylaw for Rural Resource 1 (RR1) lands which banned overnight stays. Initially the amended bylaw was not enforced because campers had nowhere else to go. However, once the campground drew the council’s attention to the zoning discrepancy, the no camping regulation began to be enforced on all RR1 lands, which included the municipal day skier lots and parking at Blackcomb and Whistler Mountain. Campers were ticketed and threatened with towing in the day skier lots, and gates were put up to prevent overnight campers from accessing the lift company parking lots. Unsurprisingly, it was not a popular decision to stop free ski-in/ski-out camping and letters of complaint were regularly published in the Whistler Question.
Whistler Campground in 1995 before the supreme court ruled that it had to be sold to Greensides. Whistler Question Collection.
With visitors still choosing to camp elsewhere throughout the winter, keeping the campground open year-round was not economically viable. In 1992, the Whistler Campground started to close for the winter. They were still busy the rest of the year, with the 151 sites regularly hosting more than 600 campers on summer weekends. When the sites filled up, Ruth and the campground team, including her sons David and Mark, would help campers find spots across their large property. There were even stories of enterprising campers setting up on the gravel bar in the middle of the creek when all the sites were filled.
Unfortunately, the campground wouldn’t last. In 1989, Vancouver-based developer Greensides Properties Inc. bought an option-to-buy on the property, giving them exclusive rights to purchase the land in the future. In the early 1990s, they followed through on their option deciding to go ahead with the purchase. Despite three appeals to the Supreme Court, Ruth was required to sell the land. According to the Whistler Question, the property was sold for 3 million dollars, plus 35% of the money derived from the redevelopment.
The picnic tables stacked after the closing of the Whistler Campground. Whistler Question Collection.
Greensides took over the property in 1996, agreeing with the council to run the campground throughout the summer. With a few approval setbacks along the way, the development of the Spruce Grove subdivision began in 1998.
Whistler went without a campground again until Riverside Campground finally opened in December 1999.
