The first settlers in the Pemberton Valley had little choice but to begin logging. When they started arriving in the late 1800s, the whole valley was covered in trees, so they had to clear their land before they could begin farming. With the rudimentary tools available to them, this task was challenging and would often take several years to complete.
The lumber from land clearing was used in various ways, including building houses, barns, root houses, fence posts, and firewood. Early farmers had to use the resources available in the valley, as bringing anything in was very difficult.
Transformations in Pemberton Logging
In 1905, the first mill in the Pemberton area was set up. Two men from Lillooet, Duguid and Hurley, brought a 23,000 lb saw-mill outfit into the valley to complete a contract to provide lumber for the fish hatchery at Pemberton Portage. When they had completed this contract, they packed the equipment out again. Until 1914, when the railway arrived, building the fish hatchery was the biggest project in the valley.
Once
the railway was completed, the potential for a large logging industry in Pemberton was opened up, and within fifteen years, it was well underway. By the thirties, the area had many tie mills and pole camps. The logging industry attracted many new settlers and provided work for the farmers.
Modernization and Mechanization
During the 1940s and 1950s, a lot of changes happened in the way that logging was done. New equipment became available, allowing logging to be done on a larger scale. Machines replaced horses, and chainsaws replaced manual saws. The design of chainsaws improved rapidly between the late 1940s and the early 1970s. Chainsaws decreased in weight by half and became much easier to use.
The Valleau logging company is an excellent example of a typical logging operation in BC in the latter half of the 20th century. It was a family-run business that did quite well for most of its existence.
Everett Valleau, along with his seven sons, founded it in 1955. Despite the harsh weather and isolation, they were quite successful because of the ready demand for BC timber. The Valleau operation ran out of Whistler for its first twenty years, from 1955-1976, and then moved to Pemberton because of conflicts with the ski industry.
From the early 1990s to the early 2000s, the trend in logging was that the large multinational companies moved in and put the smaller family-run companies out of business.
Today, minimal logging occurs in Pemberton. The days of large-scale logging are over, and the few operations still around are reminiscent of the small family-owned companies of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
