Description of Historic Place

The Hollyburn Cabin Community is located on Hollyburn Mountain in West Vancouver, British Columbia. Nestled in the mature Coastal Western Hemlock ecosystem of the Mountain's south slope, this unique group of approximately 100 ski cabins occupies an area of about 1.5 square km. The site is bounded to the north by the Power Line, the the west by Cypress Bowl Road, to the east by West Lake Road (extended north to the power line), and to the south by West Lake Road.

The cabin area includes four main creeks draining a number of small lakes, the largest of which is First Lake situated at Hollyburn Lodge. Small wetlands exist throughout the area where gradient allows.

A number of trails tie the community together, connecting cabins with each other and providing recreational opportunities such as hiking, snowshoeing and cross country skiing. Westlake Road along with the Fire Access Road and Old Ski Trail provides limited vehicle access in the summer. There is a close connection between the cabin area trails, First Lake Lodge, the Ranger Station, and the cross country ski trails of Cypress Bowl Recreation.

Heritage Value

The Hollyburn Cabin Community has great significance to the District of West Vancouver.

The Hollyburn Cabin Community is important aesthetically for its unique spatial organization. Small cabins are irregularly arrayed along narrow winding trails. These trails were established by early cabin dwellers as they hauled materials in for building, helping each other in a tradition that continues to this day.

The Hollyburn Cabin community is the only surviving ski cabin community on the North Shore. The historic value of this community exists both in the cabin buildings, representing the pioneering spirit and skills of early British Columbians, and in the people who built, maintained and enjoyed the cabin community over the past 90 years.

Scandinavian immigrants, who brought with them traditions of winter sport and cabin building, constructed the first cabins in the late 1920's to support the newly established Hollyburn Pacific Ski Camp at First Lake. Soon other young people searching for a simpler way of life based on community cooperation were drawn to the mountain to build their own cabins. By 1931 the community consisted of over 200 cabins.

To establish a cabin site, builders would look for a suitable location close to fresh water and building supplies in the form of scavenged flume boards or usable trees. A typical Hollyburn mountain ski cabin had a barn style roof, one main room for living and a ladder up to a sleeping loft. The loft extended over the entrance porch on which firewood was stored for use during the winter months when snow depth could reach 14 feet.

The Hollyburn cabins are of two basic types: board and batten or log, depending on the availability of source materials. While salvageable material from the logging mill and flumes remained, board and batten cabins with rot resistant yellow cedar support structures, board walls and cedar shake roofs were built.

As flume materials became scarce, builders either carried boards up the mountain on their backs or built cabins entirely from logs. Logs provided natural insulation and, if built from yellow cedar, longevity from the wood's natural preserving oils.

Cabin building continued through the Depression years, ending when World War II took many of the young people away from the mountain. A number of the cabins fell into disrepair as a result of the harsh, subalpine conditions of the mountain, or were deemed unsafe by the Ranger of West Vancouver and thus demolished. Currently there are about 100 cabins remaining in the community, the majority of which are now 80 to 90 years old.

Amongst the cabin owners and frequent visitors are several people who have made notable contributions to the heritage of the cabin community through writing, art, skiing and preservationist activities.

The cabin community is culturally significant because of its association with people and events related to the emerging ski culture on the north shore. The maintenance of these cabins in their traditional form embodies an approach that places high value on the continuance of an earlier generation's simple direct enjoyment of the mountain while assuming responsibility for the conservation of the natural environment. The cabins exist in harmony with the creeks, wetlands and subalpine forest ecosystem that is this place.

The Hollyburn Lodge, social center for the Hollyburn cabins, was the first site to be recognized by West Vancouver for its heritage value. It and the cabins associated with it are a symbol of the outdoor recreation and social life on the North Shore that is highly valued by the citizens of West Vancouver.

Educational and scientific knowledge are gained through the architecture of the cabins, the study of the second growth Western Hemlock Forest ecosystem, and the work done by organizations such as the Y.M.C.A., Girl Guides and Boy Scouts each of which established cabins on the mountain.

Source: District of West Vancouver

Character-Defining Elements

Key character-defining elements of the Hollyburn Cabin Community include:

- Location on land leased from District of West Vancouver
- Landforms, such as creek beds, lakes, wetlands and ponds
- Shallow soil layer supporting acidic tolerant vegetation
- Location in Coastal Western Hemlock Biogeoclimatic zone
- Natural vegetation such as western hemlock, amabilis fir, western redcedar, yellow cedar, blueberry, moss, mushrooms and fungi, bunchberry, skunk cabbage, water lily and grasses
- Wildlife, such as black bear, cougar, coyotes, squirrel, chipmunk, skunk, rodents, ravens, blue jay, gray jay, chickadees, warblers, woodpeckers, grouse, hawks, owls
- Recreational land use
- Spatial Organization of the site, including trail systems (used for hiking, Skiing, snowshoeing), and Fire Access Road and West Lake Road (providing limited summer vehicle access)
- Buildings, including cabins
- Cabin names, the majority being original names
- Vernacular cabin forms and locally sourced building materials employed in traditional ways
- Situation of cabins on undisturbed or lightly modified ground
- Placement of cabins on braced posts with minimal connection to ground surface
- Presence of cross bracing to support structure and to prevent tilting during heavy snow loads
- Raised placement of many cabins due to frequent deep snow conditions
- Variety of cabin types, including (a) board and batten with yellow cedar posts and supporting frames, board walls, and (b) log structure with log walls (debarked, tapered and arranged to keep wall level, notched at corners), ridge poles and intermediate poles
- Presence of skirting to hide base logs and bracing posts
- Roof lines, single peaked or barn style
- Presence of extended gables to protect walls and log ends from weather
- Absence of gutters
- Metal roofs
- Pit style outhouses, elevated to allow for snow accumulation, with log supports, lumber walls, steep metal roofs
- Other structures, such as man-made dam at south end of First Lake, foot bridges, boardwalks, fire access roads, culverts, signs denoting cabin names and access trails
- Views of forest ecosystem and neighbouring cabins
- Sense of place and spiritual connectedness with the natural environment
- Elements of pioneering lifestyle, such as water drawn from creeks, cabins heated by wood and illuminated by gas lamps and candles