A little history of our Squamish trails

Our local indigenous people travelled mainly by water . Yet, the Squamish people did have trails to various food gathering , berry picking and cedar bark collection locations . These trails have been in use for thousands of years . Some have disappeared under the onslaught of logging and the influx of European settlers. Vestiges of some trails still remain; namely Huckleberry, Discovery and Sea to Sky trails..

Brackendale was the site of the original homesteaders starting in 1887. Their rough road to the outside world led to Mashiters landing on the Mamquam river at the present east end of Victoria street. This link became Government road over the years and mostly followed the present Discovery trail..

Today's downtown site is the result of railway crews in 1910 needing accommodation and workshops ..As the population of the downtown grew , it eventually surpassed Brackendale in 1942. Non-sanctioned trails started appearing in the 1950s; often credited to the ' boys from Pemberton" . More recreational trails kept springing up from the volunteer efforts of keen outdoors people like Jim Harvey, Ray Peters and John Harvey. The municipal Trails Master Plan of 1998 gathered input from a wide variety of trail users and was facilitated by Jim Wisnia , Jas Wahowski and Bob Brant..

The need to assist municipal staff with trail maintenance and gather volunteers for trail projects led to the formation of the Squamish Trails Society in 1990 . It was officially incorporated in April 1994 and is registered with the BC society act as society number S 0041631.