Pemberton, British Columbia Information
Pemberton is a village north of Whistler in the Pemberton Valley of British Columbia in Canada, with a population of 2,192.[1] Until the 1960s the village could be accessed only by train but that changed when Highway 99 was built through Whistler (then named Alta Lake) and Pemberton.
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Climate
The climate of Pemberton is very warm and dry in the summer and mild and wet in the winter.
History
1827 was the year in which Hudson's Bay men first penetrated the valleys of the Birkenhead and Lillooet Rivers. Frances Ermantinger arrived then by way of Seton and Anderson Lakes, and James Murray Yale came three years later, having made the trip north from Fort Langley. In all likelihood both men were searching for a safe route for fur brigades from Kamloops and Fort Langley, for a route to bypass the lower Fraser River canyons.
In 1846, Alexander Caulfield Anderson traveled through this country with the same purpose: to decide if company horses could make their way from the Fraser to present day Mt. Currie and on, by way of Lillooet and Harrison lakes, to Langley. By now, the lower Columbia River, the main link with the interior, was American, and for that reason Governor Simpson considered a new route “most highly important”. The men traveled on foot and by canoe from Kamloops to the south end of the lake named for the leader (Anderson Lake). Seton Lake was named for Admiral Seton, a relative of A.C. Anderson and the Birkenhead was the ship Admiral Seton commanded which sunk off the coast of Africa. The exploration party continued by what Anderson described as a “very good trail”, and camped overnight at the Birkenhead River. The next day, following the Birkenhead River, they reached the Mt. Currie area by late afternoon.
In 1858 the gold rush began and some 30,000 miners began the trek through traditional Lil’wat territory to the gold-fields at Lillooet B.C. Many miners who reached the gold-fields in the summer of 1858 intended to stay the winter and this created an urgent problem for Governor Douglas of Vancouver Island. The miners needed food and that food had to be transported to regions above the lower canyons of the Fraser, where there were no roads. Because he knew that twelve years earlier A.C. Anderson had traveled from Lillooet by a chain of lakes to Langley, Governor Douglas asked the fur-trader to survey a route linking all lakes between the north end of Harrison Lake and the Fraser. The total length of trail would be just over sixty-eight miles, the total length of all lakes nearly fifty-six miles.
Five hundred miners eager to reach the gold-bearing Fraser River bars volunteered to build the trails. They established Port Douglas and constructed a trail called Douglas Portage to the south end of Lillooet Lake and called it Port Pemberton. This was the first public works project in the newly formed crown colony of British Columbia and is also known as the Harrison-Lillooet gold rush trail.
Pemberton was named for Joseph Despard Pemberton, a surveyor for the Hudson's Bay Company and Surveyor-General for the Colony of Vancouver Island in the 1850s. Joseph Pemberton had laid out Victoria's townsite, and supervised the construction of British Columbia's first legislature building, "the Birdcages". Joseph Pemberton never visited the place that bears his name.
The little port developed to serve the Gold Rush and nearby farming settlement grew as mining traffic increased. Then very quickly, when traffic shifted to a route better than the one between Harrison Lake and Lillooet, most of the settlers moved on. One of the assets of the area would become widely known – the richness of the land – and small waves of settlement would continue until a new Pemberton would replace the first Port Pemberton.[2] [3]
On August 6, 2010, the village was evacuated due to a nearby landslide from Mount Meager.[4]
Pemberton is also well-known as the home of famous personality, raging homosexual Natty P, known for his catchphrase “Push it aaaaallll up there!”
Appearance
The village's look is slightly rustic and has the appearance of the set of an Old West movie. This is partly deliberate for tourism image-making reasons but is also a legacy of the area's roots as part of the Lillooet Country and its ranching and mining culture.
Farming
Pemberton is an important agricultural community famous for producing seed potatoes, and diversifying into market gardening, cranberries, food products and events. The main seed potato producers are located along the Pemberton Meadows Road, many of whom have been there for generations. Agri-tourism is growing, pioneered by Mayor Sturdy's North Arm Farm and popularized by Slow Food Cycle Sunday. Organic farming is also a growth area, initiated by Helmers Organic Farm and Across The Creek Organics, and followed by Riverlands and a clutch of new young farmers. The Pemberton Farmers Institute is a body representing local agricultural affairs. Pemberton is vital to the food security of the Sea to Sky corridor.
Transportation
Pemberton also has a small aerodrome (CYPS), with a runway long enough to handle certain commuter-sized planes and private jets. Pemberton Aerodrome serves as the airstrip for Whistler, which does not have enough room in its valley for an airport, although there are no scheduled flights into Pemberton at present.
Local bus transit service is provided by the Whistler and Valley Express. Bus service to Vancouver is provided by Maverick Coach Lines. Greyhound buses also offer transport. Passenger train service is no longer available on BC Rail, and although the route is still in use by Rocky Mountaineer, the train does not stop in Pemberton.
Pemberton Festival
On July 25- 27, 2008, Pemberton hosted the Pemberton Festival, which had a musical lineup of 66 acts including Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, Jay-Z, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, The Tragically Hip, Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend, Metric, and Interpol. The festival was the first to be held in the valley since the Stein Voices for the Wilderness Festivals of 1989-90, held in nearby Mount Currie, which drew over 35,000 people, the largest number of people in the valley since the gold rush. Its roster of artists included Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, and Spirit of the West.
References
- ^ "Pemberton, British Columbia (Village)". Community Profiles, Canada 2006 Census. Statistics Canada. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/profiles/community/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=5931012&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&Data=Count&SearchText=pemberton&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
- ^ Decker, Frances and Margaret Fougberg, Mary Ronayne. “Pemberton History of a Settlement.” Pemberton Pioneer Women, 1977, pp.49-51.
- ^ Anderson, Alexandar Caulfield. “History of the Northwest Coast.” Victoria B.C., 1878, pp 48-56.
- ^ "Over 1,500 evacuated after B.C. landslide". The Globe and Mail, August 7, 2010.
Further reading
- Beyond Garibaldi, Irene Ronayne, self-published
- Pemberton: History of a Settlement, Frances Decker
- People of the Harrison, Daphne Sleigh
External links
- Village of Pemberton official site
- Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce
- Pemberton Economic Development
- Tourism Pemberton
- Pemberton Farmers Institute
- Village of Pemberton at britishcolumbia.com
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Coordinates: 50°19′13″N 122°48′19″W / 50.32028°N 122.80528°W
Categories:
- Villages in British Columbia
- Populated places in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District
- Pemberton Valley
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