The theme for heritage week this year is Always in All Ways. What a wonderfully wide-open theme! While we at North Shore Heritage tend to focus on built heritage, we also recognize the connection of built heritage to both cultural and landscape heritage. In the blog today, I’m going to start with a photo that represents a piece of my personal heritage but after a little research on my part, I realized that this photo also tells a pretty interesting story related to the history of Grouse Mountain and North Shore tourism. Let’s start with the photo…
Edith and Graham Clay on Grouse Mountain Chair Lift, July 1961. Courtesy of Jennifer Clay
This is a photo of my parents, Edith and Graham Clay, pictured on a Grouse Mountain Chair Lift tourist post card, likely purchased a few days later once the film was developed. The photo claim number is on the back, along with the date, July 1961, in my mother’s handwriting. The description on the back that says “We Hiked Up” is a bit perplexing though, as it’s clear from the front that they took the chairlift!
Back of Grouse Mountain Chair Lift postcard with handwritten date, July 1961 and a photo claim number. Courtesy of Jennifer Clay.
I love this picture so much! I love that my Dad is wearing a suit jacket and my mother, ever the fashion maven, is decked out in a lovely polka dot dress and looks like she is carrying some sort of silk jacket. I love that they are smiling, although my Dad was terrified of heights and was likely actually freaking out on the inside! And in seeing them in their street-clothes, it makes me wonder how many other people, not wearing tie-up shoes, might have lost their shoes!
But I’ve always wondered where that chair lift was.
In a quest to find the answer, my first stop, as usual, was the North Vancouver Archives where I found a cool 1956 photo of the lower terminal of the Grouse Mountain Chair Lift, with cars parked right up to the platform where the guests boarded the chair lift. But it was still not clear to me where this terminal was.
Lower Terminal of Grouse Mountain Chair Lift, 1956. Photo courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Archives. Inventory #15793
My next find was an old, tourist brochure from 1965 which was promoting the Grouse Mountain Chair Lift, the Dine in the Sky option and the views of the city, the Fraser River and the peaks of Vancouver Island and Washington State beyond. The brochure provided me with some new information; a diagram of the chair lift configuration showing a series of two twin-seat chair lifts and a map showing that the way up was via Capilano Road.
Ride the Grouse Mountain Chair Lift Brochure. Courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Archives
However, I wasn’t convinced that the actual lower terminal of the chair lift was in the same place where one boards the Skyride today. So, the next time I was snowshoeing at Grouse, I asked the young gondola operator if she knew where the base of the old Grouse Mountain chair lift was located. Before she could answer, another gondola guest piped up and told me it departed from the top of Skyline Drive. She told me the trail is still visible. Bingo!
A quick search of Google Maps shows where the old chair lift used to travel from the top of Skyline Drive near Mosquito Creek to the bottom of the ski run we call the Cut today. Other clues of the Skyline Drive area’s affiliation to skiing include street names such as Chalet Drive and Alpine Court.
Google Map showing the route of the Grouse Mountain Chairlift up Skyline Trail
And once I knew the origin of the chair, I was able, with the help of my fellow blogger Jenny Morgan, to find a lot more information from local newspapers of the time.
The first mention of this chair was in the Vancouver Sun on April 2, 1948. In an article titled “Grouse Ski Lift Planned”, the reporter exclaimed that “the skier’s climb up Grouse Mountain may become a trip of utter simplicity in the near future.” It went on to disclose plans for a chair lift to transport passengers and freight from the Mosquito Creek intake to the Ski Village (which was a collection of cabins at the bottom of what we now call the Cut). Apparently, the last step was for District officials to determine the best place for a parking lot and a bus turnaround.
By October 9, 1948, work had started, according to the Province Newspaper which announced:
“Work starts on lift up Grouse Mountain – Elevator will carry Skiers, Tourists to Snowfield”
The article, by Jim Fairley, outlined how the lift would be built up the side of Grouse Mountain with an estimated completion of 3 months, in time for that winter’s skiing! Yes, you read that right! Even with the technology of today, I doubt this pace of construction could be matched! The article went on to say that “Captain J.H. Cates MLA and District Commissioner M.E. “Sam” Sowden have facilitated arrangements”! I’m not sure what this reference to provincial and district officials means but it has personal meaning to me as the woman who I met on the gondola who told me that the chairlift started at the top of Skyline Drive is married to a “Cates” and Sam Sowden used to live in my house. How’s that for a confluence of coincidences?
In the story of the Grouse Mountain Twin-Seat Chairlift, it is important to note that, prior to the construction of this chairlift, there were only two ways up the mountain:
The eight mile Grouse Mountain Highway (toll road built in 1926) which had been closed in the winter since the early 30’s because there was too much snow – go figure!
A two mile hike up the mountain trail to the bottom of the Cut where skiing enthusiasts could stay in a variety of home-made log homes. (The Vancouver Sun claimed, in their October 9, 1948 article titled “Chairway to Heaven for Snow Athletes” that 40,000 hikers completed this climb every year!)
The new twin-seat chairlift from the top of Skyline Drive would thus make Grouse Mountain more accessible to skiers in the winter but the owners also hoped it would become a major tourist attraction in the summer.
Here are some facts on the project:
Construction
Construction began in October 1948 and the chair was officially opened by Alderman Charles Cates on Dec 1, 1949
It was built by a local company called Lifts Ltd, composed mostly of well-known sportsmen, headed by former basketball player, Al Beaton
The project was designed locally by Peter Vajda, a Mechanical Engineer and instructor at UBC
The total cost was $100,000
Construction crews, who were stationed at the Georgia Ski Club, cleared a 200-foot wide path
Chairlift Workers, Tom Ruegg, head rigger in front, ca 1949. Photo courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Archives. Inventory #15509
Chair lift Statistics
It carried 500 people hourly from the Skyline Drive station to the bottom of the Cut
This supposedly beat any up-mountain “elevator” capacity in Canada at the time
The ride took 12 minutes
The chair was supported by wood pylons, with a total of 100 chairs, each carrying two passengers at 30 second intervals
The round-trip cost was $1 in winter and $1.50 in summer
Route
It ran from a point 500 yards west of the Mosquito Creek Intake in a straight line to the Grouse Mountain Ski Village (a group of ski cabins at the bottom of what is now called the Cut)
Passengers gained 1800 feet in 12 minutes without being more than a few feet off the ground
The chair started at 1200 feet and followed a 1 mile “slash” to the Ski Village at 3000 feet
Loading platforms were built at the bottom and the top
Technical Details
The Skyline Twin-Seat Chair had two-seater chairs suspended from an endless steel cable hung from 23 wood towers, each of which was lit
A hundred chairs were attached to the cable 100 feet apart
More than 10,000 feet of 1 1/8 inch steel cable was used
The cable was driven by a 150 hp diesel engine
Passengers were locked in with a safety bar
The Twin-Seat Chair was built and operated by Lifts Ltd with most parts supplied locally by Gearmatic Company at 636 West 6th
Ad “Congratulations to Lifts Ltd” by Gearmatic Company, Vancouver News Herald, December 2, 1949
As soon as the lower chair was opened (December 1, 1949), construction on the 2nd Chair began (December 2, 1949). The 2nd chair was to be called Chairway to the Stars and would be constructed also at a cost of $100,000. It would carry people the additional 800 feet to the chalet (the current route of the Greenway Chair) and was expected to be finished in 1 year. As compared to the lower chair, with its wooden supports, the upper chair would be supported by metal pylons. And sure enough, it was completed and opened on time, in 1951.
Here is an ad that shows more clearly the route up Capilano Road, through Canyon Heights to the parking lot on Skyline Drive. With the addition of the 2nd chair, the cost to ride the chair had risen 33% from $1 to $1.50 per adult!
Twin Seat Chair Lift Ad “North America’s most spectacular scenic attraction”. Advertisement in the Vancouver Sun, March 17, 1951. Source: Newspapers.com
But later that year, Grouse Mountain was offering a family rate that even included university-aged kids!
Advertisement in Vancouver News Herald, May 19, 1951. Source: Newspapers.com
This last ad from 1962, using a Bear to promote the “Terrific View”, shows us that the mountain was marketing itself as a day- and night-time activity, open until midnight every day!
Advertisement in the Vancouver Sun, July 6, 1952. Source: Newspapers.com
I believe the photo of my parents was taken somewhere near the top of the 2nd chairlift, likely as they were about to disembark. The photographer was likely situated on the platform at the top.
And this is an end to my story of my personal connection to the Grouse Mountain Chair Lift. But through the process of my research, as with many of my blogs, I was reminded of the inter-connectedness between the physical, social and landscape forms of “heritage”. I started with a photo, and through a chance encounter with a stranger, managed to locate the trail and then discovered the amazing social history of the development of Grouse Mountain as a skiing and tourist destination.
So Heritage really is Always in All Ways!
The question is: How Do You Define Heritage?
Important Grouse Mountain Dates
1894 - First recorded hikers on Grouse Mountain spot a blue grouse
1910 - First incline railway proposed
1926 - Original Chalet construction
1926 - Original Mountain highway is paved. Built by Vancouver industrialist, William C. Shelley, at his own cost $1 million
1935 - DNV takes possession of Chalet after depression
1939 - Second incline railway proposed
1949 - Launch of the Village double chairlift
1951 – Launch of First Cut chairlift
1962 - Original log cabin Chalet burns down and is replaced with the Outpost
1964 - Grouse Mountain sold by the Cromie family
1965 - Led by Andrew Saxton Sr, new owners of Grouse Mountain Resorts take control with plans for expansion
1966 - Blue skyride launches. Alpine Station opens in current chalet location. Restaurant and gift shop added. 900 parking spaces added.
1972 - Original Cut chair is replaced with Doppelmayr chair
1976 - Second (red) tramway opened. Carried 100 passengers. Largest in NA at the time!
Sources:
Grousemountain.com: https://www.grousemountain.com/about
Liftblog.com: Grouse Mountain, BC – Lift Blog
“Chairway to heaven for Snow Athletes”, Vancouver Sun, October 9, 1948.
“Construction on 2nd Lift Begins Today”, Vancouver News Herald, December 2, 1949.
“Grouse Ski Lift Planned”, Vancouver Sun, April 2, 1948.
“Work starts on lift up Grouse Mountain – Elevator will carry Skiiers, Tourists to Snowfield”, Jim Fairley, The Province, October 9, 1948.