The 100th Anniversary of the Pemberton Railroad Exhibit

Railway Dreams

The residents of the Pemberton Valley were eager to see a railway built into the area for many reasons. Being connected to the coast by train meant that farmers could make money selling their crops, access to goods and services would be far more straightforward, and more settlers would arrive in the area, guaranteeing a school would be built. Another benefit of the railway was that it would transport heavy equipment needed to build dikes and canals. The streams and rivers in the area have always been prone to flooding, and during the early days of Pemberton, the yearly floods had been known to drive some settlers out of the valley.

Business people from Vancouver and beyond were eager to see a railway built to Pemberton because they could profit from the crops grown in the fertile Pemberton Valley. They were also interested in buying and selling land. Pre-railway land was inexpensive ($18 per acre), but once the Pemberton Valley was connected to the coast, land significantly increased in value ($100 per acre). Today, the average listing price for a home in Pemberton is $470,000.

Surveys & Speculators

The first substantial step towards building the railway came in 1907 when the Howe Sound, Pemberton Valley and Northern Railway Company (H.S.P.V.&N) was incorporated. James Cavers Gill, Arthur McEvoy, J.W. McFarland, E. Burns, and J.C. Keith served as the first board members. In 1909, they laid the first tracks heading from Squamish to Pemberton; however, they only completed 12 miles of the almost 60-mile route. As well as starting to build the railway, this company, which eventually became known as the Howe Sound and Northern Railway Company, bought and subdivided substantial amounts of land in Newport (Squamish) and Agerton (Pemberton). Agerton is centred around the corner where Pemberton Farm Road joins the main road linking the upper and lower valleys. They bought all the tidewater land in Squamish and Pemberton, the Neill ranch and the Miller property in Pemberton. The land the company purchased in the Pemberton Valley was subdivided into farm-sized lots sold for a significant profit. Eustace Bubb was the land agent in Pemberton.

The Howe Sound and Northern Railway Company was not the only group that invested in lands, hoping to sell them for a higher price when the railway arrived. Other speculators bought lands in the Pemberton Meadows, expecting the train to turn and go over the Hurley pass instead of going to Lillooet. A platform for a train station was even built in the meadows. Tracks were never laid in that area, so the speculators made no money.

The 1911 Declaration

During this time, in 1911, the Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe was signed in Spences Bridge on May 10, 1911, by a committee of sixteen chiefs of the St’at’imc peoples. It is an assertion of sovereignty over traditional territories as well as a protest against the alienation of land by settlers at Seton Portage due to railway prospects, surveys and construction.

It remains an important document in the history of relations between First Nations and the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia and it continues to influence land use decisions in the province to this day.

Railway Construction

Although the Howe Sound and Northern Railway Company owned much land around the railway, they only built a small part of the tracks connecting Pemberton to the coast. Several companies competed for the Government funding needed to complete the project, and in 1912, the newly formed Pacific Great Eastern Railway Company (PGE) was awarded the grant. The principals in this company were Foley, Welch and Stewart. Timothy Foley of St. Paul, Minnesota, Patrick Welch of Spokane, Washington and John William Stewart of Vancouver, BC, were the continuing railway and heavy construction contractors. D’arcy Tate was their solicitor and counsel and became the Vice President of the PGE. The station at D’arcy was named in his honour when railway construction reached this point in 1914.

Finally, after two years of construction, the PGE completed the tracks to Pemberton. On October 29, 1914, the first train pulled into the Pemberton station. The arrival of the train in Pemberton immediately improved the lives of residents in the valley. It cut down the travel time from Pemberton to Vancouver from several days to only nine hours and brought about a whole new way of life for the farmers. The rail link to the coast gave them access to increased services and guaranteed an increased income. The railway construction period and subsequent railway operation also provided jobs for Pemberton and area residents.

Finally, a Quick Trip to the City!

The railway completed in 1914 only went as far south as Squamish, or Newport as it was called at the time. The rest of the journey between Pemberton and Vancouver was completed by boat via the Union Steamship, and the trip took a minimum of nine hours, though it could have been much longer due to weather, slides, tides, and general mishaps. The train reached Lillooet in January 1915 and Quesnel in 1918. It was not until 1956 that the railway went to North Vancouver and north to Prince George. Pemberton folks were excited to host the Inaugural Train Celebration in downtown 1956, which saw W.A.C. Bennett, the Premier of the Province, arrive in an executive car with his delegates as they travelled the new route. This reduced the journey south to Vancouver to three hours. Eight years later, in 1966, the road between Pemberton and Vancouver, today Highway 99, was finally completed.

In 1972, the PGE became BC Rail. In 2004. the provincial government sold the railway to CN. After 88 years, passenger rail service ended on October 31, 2002. Today, the railway is owned by The Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN was a Crown corporation from its founding until it was privatized in 1995. Bill Gates was the largest single shareholder of CN stock in 2011. CN owns about 20,400 route miles (32,831 km) of track in eight provinces.

Above is a collection of photos of Port Pemberton, surveyors, trains, and early stations from the HSPV&N, PGE, and BC railways era. Several images show the celebration when the first train from North Vancouver arrived in 1956. The images appear in chronological order by year. The last photo, recently donated, is of a steam excursion train that passed through Pemberton in the 1980s.