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Whistler’s history finds a new home

A reinvented Whistler Museum reopens to the public after almost two years of closure; unveils new exhibit on community’s Olympic journey
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What: Whistler Museum Grand Opening

When: Thursday, Dec. 17, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Where: 4333 Main St. (behind library)

Cost: Free! (donations appreciated)

Whistler is a strange place - "unique" if you want to be polite. It has a small town vibe coupled with the infrastructure of a big city, and these days everyone is pretty caught up in the craziness surrounding the Olympic Games.

The community has changed radically since Myrtle and Alex Philip bought land on Alta Lake in 1913 and opened the Rainbow Lodge a year later. But few people who call Whistler home today actually know the real history of the town - a fact that hasn't been helped much by the two-year closure of the museum.

All of that is about to change as the revamped Whistler Museum is reopened to the public next week, unveiling the town's rich, quirky history to long-time locals, fresh-off-the-boat seasonal workers and international tourists alike.

John Hetherington is president of the Whistler Museum and Archives Society. He got involved with the museum about a year and a half ago, but has been a part of the community's history. He's witnessed the evolution of the town since moving here in 1967, just the third season that Whistler Mountain was open for skiing. He's seen the community grow from a town of 150 people to become home to almost 10,000 year-round residents and another 2 million visitors. In that time, Whistler definitely experienced its share of growing pains. Hetherington and the rest of the folks at the Whistler Museum wanted to make sure they shared the real history of the 2010 Olympic town - the good, the bad, and the ugly - with the world.

On Monday morning, the museum's new home - the former library, which is made from four merged trailer units - was still under construction, but the bones of the building are firmly in place. And with a bit of imagination, it's easy to visualize where the various exhibits will go. The facility will feature a Hall of Characters, a natural history area (complete with taxidermy), a replica of Rainbow Lodge, which will include the Myrtle and Alex Philip story. There will be a fireplace area for storytelling in one corner, a small video room in the next and an entire section dedicated to the Olympics.

The original Whistler Museum was founded in 1986 by Florence Petersen and was built around the Rainbow Lodge/Myrtle Philip era.

"That was okay for its time, but it wasn't a broad enough scope to base a community museum on," Hetherington said.

Over the years, the museum has had a number of homes throughout town, including in Function Junction and right next door to its current location, behind the Whistler Public Library. The museum closed in February 2008 and was originally scheduled to reopen earlier this year, but in order to get the best possible exhibit the project was delayed.

According to Kelly Hand, Public Education and Marketing Supervisor for the museum, the project has come in on its $300,000 budget. The funding was provided by the Resort Municipality of Whistler, American Friends of Whistler, Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, Whistler Arts Council, Community Foundation of Whistler, Province of B.C. and the B.C. Gaming Funds and Heritage Canada.

The new exhibit, titled Whistler's Olympic Journey, chronicles the birth of the resort as a whole and the community's journey to the 2010 Winter Games, a 50-year road that has been fraught with pitfalls. Whistler made three unsuccessful bids to host the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics before the 2010 Games were awarded to Vancouver and Whistler in July 2003.

But the history of Whistler includes tales of First Nations peoples, pioneers, fishing resort developers, artists, ski bums and tourists - and all of those aspects have been included in the new Whistler Museum, as well.

"We just didn't live on Olympic bids," Hetherington pointed out.

Leah Batisse, the new curator and executive director of the Whistler Museum, has taken a serious crash course in Whistler history since moving to the community in September. She's been working hand-in-hand with the museum's main archivist, Sarah Drewery, to learn all about the route Whistler took from a backcountry fishing destination to the world-class ski resort it is today.

"It's a very unique thing in the heritage field, in that the history makers are still walking around. So it's a great opportunity because you can get all those stories and the history is still so alive here," Batisse said. "...People care very passionately about this place and its history, and people are very willing, if you ask the right question, to sit down and give you an hour-long conversation about what went down at a certain time."

Batisse has also been trying to make the Whistler Museum and Archives Society's vision for the new facility a reality.

"We're not the Olympic museum, we're the Whistler Museum, so we are presenting an all-encompassing history of this community, and the Olympics are just a smaller component of the larger story," Batisse added.

"...We've worked really hard to maintain that (original vision) and to not get caught up in Olympic fever and to ensure that we're telling the story that we intended to tell."

The new museum will finally be unveiled to the public next week, during an open house event. On top of their collections and exhibits, the Whistler Museum will be offering research services, custom programs, speakers' series, photo reproductions and venue rental.

"Everybody is excited and working towards getting the museum open - that's the major concern right now, is getting this place open, and it never goes as fast as you'd hoped," Hetherington said with a grin.

After the open house on Thursday, Dec. 17, the museum is open for public viewing seven days a week from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, $4 for youth, and children under the age of six are free. For more information, visit www.whistlermuseum.org .

But as Hetherington and Batisse point out, their work isn't finished yet. Though the building is almost complete, they will be following the Olympic journey to the very end and will be rotating exhibits up occasionally.

"We have enough artifacts that we could be constantly changing this museum," he said. "...(The project) isn't coming to an end, it's more like it's coming to fruition."