Garibaldi, originally named Daisy Lake and also known as Garibaldi Lodge and Garibaldi Townsite, is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

and

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada, on the

Cheakamus River The Cheakamus River (pron. CHEEK-a-mus) is a tributary of the Squamish River, beginning at the terminus of McBride Glacier on Mount Sir Richard in Garibaldi Provincial Park upstream from Cheakamus Lake on the southeastern outskirts of the res ...

around its confluence with

Rubble Creek Rubble Creek is a creek in southwestern British Columbia, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean an ...

and just south of Daisy Lake. The CN railway (formerly

BC Rail The British Columbia Railway Company , commonly known as BC Rail, is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial ...

) and

British Columbia Highway 99 Highway 99 is a provincial highway in British Columbia that runs from the U.S. border to near Cache Creek, serving Greater Vancouver and the Squamish–Lillooet corridor. It is a major north–south artery within Vancouver and connects the c ...

traverses it north–south. Although some buildings remain, including

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

facilities, the community is now officially depopulated due to the

geohazard A geologic hazard or geohazard is an adverse geology, geologic condition capable of causing widespread damage or loss of property and life. These hazards are geological and environmental conditions and involve long-term or short-term geological ...

posed by

the Barrier The Barrier is a lava dam retaining the Garibaldi Lake system in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is over thick and about long where it impounds the lake. The area below and adjacent to The Barrier is considered hazardous due to th ...

, a

lava dam A volcanic dam is a type of natural dam produced directly or indirectly by volcanism, which holds or temporarily restricts the flow of surface water in existing streams, like a man-made dam. There are two main types of volcanic dams, those creat ...

holding back

Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Lake is a turquoise-coloured alpine lake in British Columbia, Canada, located north of Squamish and south of Whistler. The lake lies within Garibaldi Provincial Park, which features mountains, glaciers, trails, forests, flowers, m ...

that has let go at various points in the past;

, the source of which is Garibaldi Lake, gets its name from the large boulder field created by successive degenerations of the Barrier.

History

The townsite had come into existence shortly after the opening of the

Pacific Great Eastern Railway The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, with its post office opening in 1916, and it had been the site of Garibaldi Lodge, one of several railway lodges along the rail line, the most well known in this locality being

Rainbow Lodge 300px, Rainbow Lodge sat centre left at far end of lake by grove of orange poplars on Alta Lake; Whistler sits out of view at right. Rainbow Lodge was a small railway resort and was the first commercial fishing and weekend retreat cabin on Alta L ...

at Alta Lake. The settlement's name was changed from Daisy Lake to Garibaldi in 1932 by dint of association with the intended main basetown for Garibaldi Provincial Park. Plans for a ski development at this location were ended when the evacuation was ordered in 1980. Property owners and residents of the townsite were ordered by the provincial government to evacuate Garibaldi amid much public controversy as to whether it was really necessary or not. To compensate property owners, lots were offered in the new Pinecrest and Black Tusk Estates subdivisions a bit further north, and out of the way of the debris path from the Barrier. The name of Garibaldi Lifts Company, the founding company of what is now

Whistler Blackcomb Whistler Blackcomb is a ski resort located in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. By many measures, it is the largest ski resort in North America and has the greatest uphill lift capacity. It features the Peak 2 Peak Gondola for moving between ...

, was chosen in anticipation that Garibaldi would be the major resort in this area. A new all-season

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

complex received approval from the provincial government in January 2016, a $3.5 billion project that will take twenty years to complete. It will be fifteen kilometers north of Squamish on Brohm Ridge, which is just 1.6 kilometers west of Mount Garibaldi and 4.3 kilometers south of Garibaldi Lake. It will include ski lifts and runs alongside multi-purpose hiking and biking trails. The main facility will include a car-free village with housing, restaurants, and shops linked to Squamish by transit. Aquilini Investment Group vice president Jim Chu said the benefits of the project will include 4,000 jobs to operate the resort, 2,000 to build it, millions of dollars in tourism-related activity, and $49 million in tax revenue.

References

{{Portal bar, Canada Sea-to-Sky Corridor Ghost towns in British Columbia Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Populated places in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Natural hazards in British Columbia

History

See also

References