What is the history of the development of Whistler?
rom the turn of the last century to 1960 Whistler was known as Alta Lake, a remote summer fishing community. Rainbow Lodge, built in 1940, didn’t receive electrical service until the early 1960s and access was only possible by train and a few meager logging trails. It was Franz Wilhelmsen a Vancouver businessman who used to journey to Alta to hike the mountains who changed all that. On one of his extended wilderness tours, he envisioned the area as a ski resort. Of course everyone thought he was crazy: the weather was too unpredictable and the location was too remote for development. However with the completion of the Sea-to-Sky Highway direct from Vancouver in 1965, the stage was set for Whistler’s grand opening in 1966. The City of Whistler incorporated and became a municipality in 1970, featuring a new “downtown” called Whistler Village. Neighbouring Blackcomb Mountain was then also developed for skiing. By 1984, the Vancouver-based real estate developing firm IntraWest Corp. purcha
