Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of articles by local historian Eric Andersen focusing on Squamish’s history in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the renaming of the community in 1914.
During this year various community organizations and projects are commemorating an anniversary, a “Railway Centenary” — not only in Squamish, but at Whistler and Pemberton as well.
The arrival of the P.G.E. Railway at Alta Lake (then “Summit Lake”) and the Pemberton Valley in the fall of 1914 was of enormous importance for the development of those places.
However, it is not only the extension of a railway line but also new port terminal facilities at Squamish that should be in focus. With the completion of grand new deep-sea docks here in 1914, the long-suggested role for Squamish as a portal for and gateway to the B.C. Interior was realized.
Squamish already had its Government Wharf at the mouth of the old East Branch of the river (today’s Mamquam Blind Channel), built in 1902. However, its capabilities were very limited.
The new railway dock was to have a 2,000-foot-long approach trestle out into deeper waters, which then branched into three piers: a 700-foot east side extension to serve passenger steamships; a 1,000-foot-long west side trestle for freight barges and other large vessels; and an 800-foot centre track leading to a freight storage and transfer shed. From above, the 1914 docks would resemble a three-pronged fork, jutting out from the estuary. It would also appear to be a somewhat delicate or vulnerable structure — which it was, as it turned out.
The 1914 docks near the mouth of the main river branch were seriously damaged during a few storm events over the years, and in 1929 were eventually replaced with more robust facilities adjacent the old Government Wharf.
With the new dock facilities and rail line, the region could more easily ship various products to markets — no longer just loading small scows and dropping logs in the water.
For the Pemberton Valley, the rail line and new facilities at Squamish meant vastly improved opportunity for development of agriculture — not only because of new capabilities for shipping farm products, but because the heavy equipment necessary to improve and protect lands (from floods) for cultivation could now be brought into the valley.
The modern transportation system introduced in 1914 to each of the communities of the corridor brought new access to services and amenities — and also brought new settlers, and then better circumstances for schools and social life.
With new railway and steamship dock facilities at Squamish, the railway could also set about promoting a tourism industry. From a 1914 P.G.E. brochure:
“You may take the wings of morning and travel far; you may exhaust the glories of Switzerland and the Continent; but you will never know what sublimity and music may be found in the changing panoramas of nature spread over cliff and terrace, river and waterfall, until you take the iron trail of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway.”
A P.G.E. “Fishermen’s Special” train schedule to Alta Lake was started, with the newly built Rainbow Lodge catering to what would become a steady clientele of railway passenger traffic. Arrangements between the railway, the steamship company, and Rainbow Lodge from 1914-’15 were the beginnings of Whistler.
All of these important legacies of the marine and railway transportation improvements completed 100 years ago can be contemplated on the Squamish Oceanfront beach, where the pilings of the 1914 steamship and railway docks are still to be seen.
