SQUAMISH
“O’SIEM”
To fully
understand the Squamish Story, one needs to look back beyond the eras of
logging and adventure tourism, past the human definition of time to capture
events that happened thousands or millions of years ago, and sometimes
kilometers above and below us. The Squamish landscape was, and is, under a
constant battle of building itself up as small Pacific plates slide under the
continental margin and under gravity driven agents of running water and flowing
ice. The dynamic balance is eruption and erosion; fire and ice.
About
10,000 years ago, Howe Sound was being scourged by the recession of the last
ice age and received its unique geologic character. Mount Garibaldi
erupted forming a volcanic cone over the ice. When the ice receded the cone
collapsed creating distinct landscape features that can be seen in Garibaldi Park today. When the river of lava met
the glacier below it “froze”, creating a huge dam called the Barrier. At the
south end of Garibaldi
Lake is the Table, a
steep-sided, flat-topped peak that is the result of an eruption of lava into a
vertical pipe thawed in the ice. The Stawamus Chief, an old magma chamber of an
ancient volcano and the world's second largest granite monolith, was revealed
as ice eroded the weaker rock.
After the
volcanic eruption, the valley started to warm up. Glaciers began to melt,
retreating up valleys and leaving behind vast moraines (rubble heaps of
rock)—these can be seen in the high country of Garibaldi Park,
above the Elaho, the Squamish and the Clendenning rivers. As the glacier on the
west flank of Garibaldi
Mountain receded the
entire side of the mountain collapsed, leaving the Cheekeye Fan. On the east
side, melting ice created Garibaldi
Lake. If you look
closely, you can still see volcanic and glacial evidence in Squamish's dynamic
surroundings; there are lava flows, basalt deposits, and glacial-polished rock
formations.
It wasn't
long after the ice receded that the human touch left its print on the Squamish
Story. Descendants of the aboriginal people who made the epic journey from Asia
across the frozen Bering Strait and down the
Alaskan Panhandle to Howe Sound possibly as long as 5,000 years ago still live
in the area today. For millennia, the Sko-mish or Squamish people hunted,
trapped, fished and raised their families in this lush Valley.
Their
adventure joins a European one on a rainy day in June 1792 when British
Explorer Captain George Vancouver and his crew sailed their ship
"Discovery" into Howe Sound's Darrell Bay,
just south of Squamish. He met and traded with the local native people, which
was a friendly encounter of great interest to both parties. The “Discovery” set
sail the following day having named the area “Head of Howe Sound” after Lord
Howe a prominent commander in the British Navy.
Traders,
gold seekers and adventurers followed during the next century, but it wasn't
until 1888 when Alec Robertson and his wife traveled out west from Manitoba, built a home
and settled at the head of Howe Sound, that non-natives found a permanent home
in Squamish. The Robertson’s so loved their new home that their daughter
Catherine and her husband Allan Rae settled in Squamish later that same year. A
month after the Rae's arrival in the area they had the first non-native baby
born in the valley: a son Edgar. A year later Harry Judd and his wife Annie
arrived from London Ontario. Judd cleared his land in
Brackendale and built a dairy farm. With their two sons and eight daughters,
their role in the Squamish Story, and in the development community, was forever
etched.
Forestry
quickly surpassed farming as the foundation of the economy in Squamish. The
Valley was a busy and prosperous place, connected with the growing city of Vancouver only by the
sea.
The next
harbinger of change for Squamish was the completion of the railway from
Squamish to Vancouver in 1956 and the Sea-to-Sky
Highway a few years later. Strangers drove up the
highway penetrating Squamish's familiar and insular world. Adventurers like Jim
Baldwin and Ed Cooper, who spent six weeks in 1961 scaling the Grand Wall of
the Chief, brought worldwide media attention to the Valley. The influx of
outdoor revelers grew when the resort of Whistler, formerly Alta Lake,
first took baby steps toward adventure tourism in the late 60s.
Today, the
Squamish story continues to unfold. Changes in the viability and longevity of
the province's forest industry and the increase in outdoor recreation and
tourism related economies are ringing in even more dramatic change. This
beautiful Valley is slowly being discovered as North America's premiere outdoor
Mecca with
unparalleled quality and quantity of outdoor activities to be explored.
Squamish
has been one of Canada’s
“hidden gems” for many years. For centuries, the incomparable beauty of this
valley has amazed visitors and residents alike.
Squamish
is ideally located at the tip of the Howe Sound just 40 minutes north of Vancouver and 40 minutes
south of Whistler.
The town
is in the midst of a boom, growing in size with new investment, and with it new
opportunities and new activities.
Squamish's reputation
as the Outdoor Capital of Canada is spreading, and for good reason. The
geography and climate of the Squamish area offer not only tremendous physical
beauty but also world-class recreation opportunities. From hiking, biking,
climbing, skiing, snowboarding, bird watching, golfing and sightseeing to
sailing, windsurfing, kayaking, white-water rafting and fishing there is truly
something for everyone!
***O’Siem – Coast
Salish for “joy in community”, an expression “welcoming and honoring guests”,
an exclamation of joy at seeing friends and family***