The creation of Garibaldi Provincial Park

With the 1912 creation of Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island, the Vancouver public thought that the Garibaldi district should also become parkland. After several trips to the area with the Mountaineering Club, Davidson began a campaign: “It is my desire,” he was quoted as saying in a 1915 newspaper, “to have this beautiful mountain and surrounding valleys reserved by the government for a provincial park.” He rationalized this recommendation with two arguments:

• The area, so close to Vancouver, would make a perfect outdoor classroom for students’ nature study.
• The park, “lying as it does so close to the hunting fields and all the charms of the British Columbia wilds,” would attract tourists.

The BCMC held an executive meeting on October 16, 1915, at which they passed a resolution calling for the creation of a park. It read:

THAT it is desirable in the public interest to have a park reserve created in the Mount Garibaldi District, to include all those portions which have a greater elevation than three thousand feet above sea-level in the area bounded by the Mamquam and Pitt Rivers and the main stream and east branch of the Cheakamus River, so that its remarkable assemblage of glacial, volcanic and other natural features may be preserved unimpaired for the instruction and recreation of the people of Western Canada.

Listen to the audio clip: “People involved in creating Garibaldi Park” (streaming, 2.8 MB)

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In 1920, the provincial government stated their intention to officially set aside the land to create the Garibaldi Park reserve. On March 7, 1927, they passed The Garibaldi Park Act, creating an administrative board with W.J. Weart as the first chair. The act stated the park was “for the benefit, advantage and enjoyment of the people of the Province.”