July 01, 2011 @ 01:22AM
Though today Whistler is North America's largest ski resort and a top four season resort, its history as a getaway spot began less than a hundred years ago. Alex and Myrtle Philip, a couple from Maine with a dream of building a fishing lodge in the West, visited the area and bought ten acres of land on Alta Lake. Their Rainbow Lodge fishing resort opened in 1914.
When the Philips first arrived, the area was a three day journey from Vancouver, including a two day hike over a primitive trail. The same year the Rainbow Lodge opened, however, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway reached the area and provided much easier accessibility.
Word of this beautiful valley with its excellent fishing spread. Other lodges were built to accommodate the fishermen and tourists attracted by the spectacular scenery. The area was soon a very popular summer resort.
This tourist trade joined other commercial interests, including prospecting, fur trading and logging, carried on by the early pioneers in the area. Even earlier, the Squamish and Lil'wat First Nations had inhabited the valley.
Given its popularity today as a ski resort, it is hard to imagine that skiing only came to Whistler Mountain in the 1960s when four Vancouver businessmen, eyeing a bid for the 1968 Winter Olympics, formed the Garibaldi Lifts Company to build ski lifts on Whistler. It might be even harder to believe that, at that time, there was no road, no piped water and no electricity in the community.
The lifts were built and Whistler Mountain opened for skiing in 1966. Growth in the area followed quickly. In 1978, a company was formed to develop a donated tract of Crown land into the Town of Whistler. Neighboring Blackcomb Mountain opened for skiing as a separate venture in 1980.
In 1998, Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain merged into a single company and, in 2008, the two mountains were connected by the Peak to Peak gondola.
The Winter Olympics finally came to the Town of Whistler in 2010 when it was the official Alpine skiing venue for the Vancouver Olympics.
