PEMBERTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA

'Pemberton' is a village north of Whistler in the Pemberton Valley and has a population of 2,204. Until the 1960s the village could be accessed only by train but that changed when Highway 99 was built through Whistler (then named Alta Lake) and Pemberton.

Contents

Climate

History

Development

External links

Climate

The climate of Pemberton is very warm and dry in the summertime and mild and wet in the winter. The regulated temperatures are created by the surrounding Coast Mountains.

History

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 townsite, and supervised the building of British Columbia's first legislative building.
The village's look is slightly rustic and has the appearance of the set of an Old West movie. This is partly deliberate for tourism image-making reasons but is also a legacy of the area's roots as part of the Lillooet Country and its ranching and mining culture.

Development

The village is growing quickly and its growth is actually outpacing that of nearby Whistler. Since 2003, the population has grown at a rate of 7.3% (while Whistler has grown at just 0.5%) and the average price for a townhouse in Pemberton in 2006 was more than $40,000 higher than it was in 2003 [1].
Pemberton also has a small airport, with a runway long enough to handle commuter-sized planes and private jets. Pemberton airport serves as the airstrip for Whistler, which does not have enough room in its valley for an airport, although there are no scheduled flights into Pemberton at present.

External links

★ Village of Pemberton

★ Pemberton & District Chamber of Commerce

★ Imagine Pemberton, part of Simon Fraser University's Imagine BC series