Whistler Yesterday to Today

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The story of Whistler is the place, the people and the Olympic Dream

This land around the small chain of lakes had been inhabitated for thousands of years by the Coast Salish First Nations. The valley itself was an isolated wilderness, frequented only by people from the Lil'wat and Squamish Nations, until a trail linking Pemberton to the Pacific was opened in 1877, attracting prospectors and trappers like John Millar.

Over the next several decades other enterprising folks, including Alex and Myrtle Philip and Philip Tapley arrived, turning the isolated valley into a lively, sociable community, with Saturday night dances at the lodge, fishing, boating, picnicking, hiking, exploring, skating, snowshoeing, and that new sport - skiing.

In 1960, a group of Vancouver businessmen had a brainwave - Vancouver, and the mountains North of it, would be a perfect place to hold the 68' games. They began search for suitable terrain, but one, Norwegian Franz Wilhelmsen, already knew the ideal location. He was nuts about the exhausting yet exhilarating backcountry, it only needed a chair lift to make his life complete!

Proposals were submitted, rejected, modified, researched, rejected again, financed and finally, lift construction began in 1965. Whistler didn't host those winter games, and failed in the next bid attempt too, but the vision was always crystal clear: a world-class summer and winter resort, skiing in wide-open bowls and on long, treed trails in winter and fishing and hiking in summer, with a commercial area to service the multitudes. The Garibaldi Lift Company opened the gondola, Big Red Chair and two t-bars on the west
side of Whistler Mountain on February 15, 1966.

Whistler then needed a local government, but one that recognized its unique character and its potential to become a year-round resort. The answer was the Resort municipality of Whistler, incorporated on September 6, 1975, as the first designated resort municipality in the country.

Locals made plans to launch Whistler into the international marketplace. They had architects design a pedestrian village at the foot of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. Al Raine, the provincial coordinator for ski development called for proposals to develop a sister ski area on Blackcomb. The Garibaldi Lift Company committed to building a three-stage lift access up the North side of Whistler. The resort association was created to sell Whistler to the world. And when the village and Blackcomb opened for business in December 1980, the world came.

Locals began to plot another strategy that would extent the resort's business through the spring and summer. The strategy involved a careful mix of summer amenities that fit the mountain landscape, like golf and hiking, and a line-up of art, concerts and festivals. It worked. Since 1989, the accolades have poured in. By the new millennium, annual visitation suppressed 2 million, with summer visitors exceeding winter and the permanent population growing to 9,500.

Most fittingly, after a third attempt, on July 2, 2003, more than 5,000 residents gathered in Village Square to cheer Jacque Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee telecasting live from Prague, as he announced Vancouver/Whistler as the host of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

For More Information visit:

www.tourismwhistler.com
www.whistlerblackcomb.com

Whistler Area Map Resources

Southwestern British Columbia Map (104 KB) >
Whistler Valley Map (93 KB) >
Whistler Village Map (86 KB) >