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Whistler, British Columbia

Resort municipality in British Columbia, Canada

  • 12 min read
  • 10 chapters

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Over two million people visit Whistler annually, primarily for alpine skiing and snowboarding and, in the summer, mountain biking at Whistler Blackcomb. Its pedestrian village has won numerous design awards, and Whistler has been voted among the top destinations in North America by major ski magazines since the mid-1990s. During the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Whistler hosted most of the alpine events, Nordic, luge, skeleton, and bobsled events.

History

The Whistler Valley is located around the pass between the headwaters of the Green River and the upper-middle reaches of the Cheakamus. It is flanked by glaciated mountains on both sides; the Garibaldi Ranges on the side that contains the ski mountains, and a group of ranges with no collective name but that are part of the larger Pacific Ranges and are essentially fore-ranges of the Pemberton Icefield. Although there are a few other routes through the maze of mountains between the basin of the Lillooet River just east, the Cheakamus-Green divide is the lowest and most direct.

Indigenous settlement

Before European settlement, the Lilʼwat First Nation and Squamish Nation both used the Whistler area, which they called Cwítima and Sḵwiḵw, respectively. They also shared a village known as Spó7ez at the confluence of Rubble Creek and the Cheakamus River south of Whistler. Spó7ez, a hub of trade and commerce, was buried after the Black Tusk volcano erupted. Both Nations continued to cohabit the region, travelling to the area in the warmer months, where they established seasonal camps for hunting and trapping. Spó7ez was re-populated until it was destroyed by another rock slide in the 1800s. Evidence was found of an ístken pit-house on the land that became the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, which was used by the Wolf Clan (now known as the Wallace Family) as shelter.

European settlement

The first British survey by the Royal Navy took place in the 1860s. These surveyors named the mountain London Mountain because of the heavy fog and cloud typically gathering around the mountain, but the area informally acquired the name "Whistler" due to the call of the hoary marmot. In the late 19th century, the Lillooet Cattle Trail was cut through the valley, linking Lillooet via Pemberton with Burrard Inlet via a pass from Squamish to the Seymour River. The trail was completed in 1877, but because of the difficult and unforgiving terrain, it was only used once for its intended purpose, which was to drive cattle.

The area began to attract trappers and prospectors—such as John Millar and Henry Horstman—who established small camps in the area in the early 20th century. The area began to gain recognition with the arrival of Myrtle (whom the Myrtle Philip school was named after) and Alex Philip, who in 1914 purchased 4.0 ha (10 acres) of land on Alta Lake and established the Rainbow Lodge. The Philips had relocated from Maine to Vancouver in 1910 and had heard rumours of the natural beauty of the area from Pemberton pioneer John Millar. After an exploratory journey, the couple was convinced.

Rainbow Lodge and other railway-dependent tourist resorts were collectively known as Alta Lake. Along with the rest of the valley bridging the Cheakamus (pron. CHEEK-a-mus) and Green River (a tributary of the Lillooet River) basins, they became part of British Columbia's first resort municipality in 1975.

Completion of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in 1914 greatly reduced the travel time from three days, providing ease of access from Vancouver, and the Rainbow Lodge gained a reputation as the most popular vacation destination west of the Rockies. The lodge was primarily a summer destination, with boating, fishing and hiking among the most popular activities, and soon other lodges began to open not just on Alta Lake, but on other valley lakes as well.

Appreciation of the outdoors was not the only activity in the valley, however. Logging was a booming industry. During the first half of the 20th century, most of the lower slopes of the surrounding mountains were cleared of old-growth. At its peak, four mills were in operation, most located around Green Lake. Prospecting and trapping were pursued as well, though no claims of great value were ever staked.

The resort town was granted heraldic symbols by the Canadian Heraldic Authority in January 2016.

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