PEMBERTON

PEMBERTON

Is a small town located just a short drive from Whistler (about 35 kilometers, south) on Highway #99.

Pemberton came to be in 1827 when its surrounding valley became home to many men of the Hudson’s Bay Company in order to survey a safer route to the fur brigades of Fort Kamloops and Fort Langley as well as a route to bypass the canyons of the lower Fraser River.

Pemberton was established in 1858 at the head of Lillooet Lake, as a stop along the trail to the goldfields between Harrison Lake and the Fraser River and is named after Joseph Despard Pemberton, a government surveyor, who served as Surveyor-General in Vancouver Island from 1859 to 1864.

Pemberton, which was incorporated on July 20, of 1956, has benefited from the rapid growth of Whistler and grown in popularity as a cheaper housing alternative for employees who work in Whistler and with a growth rate of 7.3% since 2003, it has become one of British Columbia’s fastest growing communities.

Pemberton is surrounded by mountains, lakes, and rivers, sits in a fertile valley, and is very well- known for its disease-free seed potatoes. Logging has become the important and influential economic benefactor as has farming and ranching. By the early 1960s when Highway #99 was built from here to Vancouver, Pemberton was only accessible by train making the town more isolated and remote.

The community also has its own airport and runway long enough to serve commuter-sized planes and private jets, but because Pemberton does not have enough room in its rustic valley as well as its remote location, it cannot serve daily flights.

Pemberton’s population: 2,192

Pemberton's welcome sign