Pemberton BC

About Pemberton, BC

Tucked beyond the Coast Mountains just 30 minutes north of Whistler lies Pemberton Valley, a green pocket of agricultural land widely known for its potatoes. Though farming is still a mainstay to the area, economic growth and real estate development over the past few years has turned this one horse town into what it is today - the Village of Pemberton - with its own Tourism Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, Visitor Centre, restaurants, great accommodations, and an airport. Although at first Pemberton was seen as Piggybacking on Whistler's popularity, Pemberton's is starting to become recognized as its own entity as well as being known as a gateway to adventure - a portal to the rest of British Columbia.

A Brief History
The rustic village of Pemberton was named for Joseph Despard Pemberton, a surveyor-general for the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1850s. Joseph Pemberton had laid out Victoria's town site, and supervised the building of British Columbia's first legislative building. The original Port Pemberton was located at the head of Lillooet Lake, serving as a stopover for people heading north in pursuit of gold. Prospectors and pioneers passed through this area, and had begun to settle by the turn of the nineteenth century. The first settler was John Curry, who raised hogs and cattle and sold them to travellers. He also drove them up the 60 miles of rugged trail to Lillooet. The railway line arrived in 1924, when the first passenger train rolled through, bringing with it more families to settle in the Pemberton Valley. The gold may have panned out, but there were riches to be had in the valley's fertile soil, and Pemberton grew as a result.

Before the European settlers came to the area, Native peoples from the Interior Salish Tribe called this area their home. The band settled at the foot of majestic Mount Currie where they still live today and continue to be an important and distinct part of the Pemberton community.