The miraculous resurrection of Canada’s Edelweiss Village
On the brink of demolition, a group of Swiss-style chalets in the Canadian Rocky Mountains has been given a new lease of life. SWI swissinfo.ch visits a Swiss heritage site that is full of stories.
Yellow hiking trail signs point the way to a handful of chalets; little Swiss flags flutter in the wind. In the background, dense forests and rocky mountain peaks pierce through low-hanging clouds.
Anyone entering the “Edelweiss Village” might fancy they are in a Swiss mountain village. However, the small settlement is neither in Valais nor in the Bernese Oberland, but 8,000km away in Golden, in the middle of western Canada’s Rocky Mountains. This is where numerous Swiss mountain guides and their families found a new home more than 125 years ago and left their mark.
The first to come from Switzerland was Peter Sarbach in 1897, whose successful mountain tours with tourists made the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) recognise the value of professional Swiss mountain guides. The CPR subsequently hired guides such as Eduard Feuz and Christian Haesler from Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland.
This first generation of Swiss mountain guides in Canada were seasonal workers. In the summer, they took tourists to the numerous mountain peaks, and left again in the autumn. But the journey between Golden and the Bernese Oberland was arduous, and the boat journey alone – often across stormy seas – took more than three weeks.
Over time, this commute between home and Canada became too strenuous for them, and the Swiss guides also no longer wanted to leave their families behind for months on end. The CPR reacted: in 1912 the company built six chalets on a mountainside 2km outside Golden. They called it the “Swiss Edelweiss Village”.
From then on, the Swiss mountain guides lived with their migrant families in the imitation Swiss chalets. However, this settlement was too remote for most of the women and children, especially in the pre-car years. Gradually, the families moved closer to the centre of town. In the end, the chalets were no longer inhabited and all six buildings ended up belonging to the descendants of mountain guide Walter Feuz.
Threat of demolition
Three years ago the dilapidated houses came onto the market at a bargain price, and were threatened with demolition. Two Swiss Abroad, Ilona Spaar and Johann Roduit, took action to save this Swiss cultural heritage site. Both have lived in Canada for years but still have close ties to Switzerland.
Spaar had already written several publications on the Swiss mountain guides and the immigration of Swiss nationals to Canada. Roduit, an innovation strategist, was well connected as a member of the Council of the Swiss Abroad and was convinced that the legacy of the Swiss mountain guides did not stop at Switzerland’s borders.
“My great hope is that local tourism will discover and understand the history and value of the Edelweiss Village for itself,” Spaar said three years ago to SWI swissinfo.ch, the first media outlet to pick up on the impending demolition. The response was huge.
More
Iconic ‘Swiss village’ in the Rocky Mountains goes on sale
Numerous media outlets in Switzerland, Canada and elsewhere subsequently reported on the endangered Swiss chalets in the Rocky Mountains and the fate of the chalets seemed to touch many people both in Canada and abroad. Spaar and Roduit felt vindicated in their endeavour – they set up a foundation and fought side by side to preserve the Swiss cultural heritage site.
Investment of several million
Three years later the six chalets have all been freshly renovated. They bear names such as “Feuz” or “Hermann”, after the Swiss mountain guide pioneers. And on this weekend in October, they are even hosting the Swiss ambassador and Swiss consul, who have travelled from Ottawa and Vancouver. “You can almost feel the presence of the Swiss mountain guides,” ambassador Olaf Kjelsen said on his night’s lodgings.
Speeches, the sound of the alphorn, a Swiss-Canadian male choir and constant applause. Officially, 125 years of the Swiss mountain guides are being commemorated, but the real cause for celebration is the successful rescue of the Edelweiss Village.
This happy ending was ultimately made possible by an investor from the property sector, who bought the chalets and not only preserved them, but renovated them from the ground up and converted them into vacation rentals. More than CAD$3 million (CHF1.9 million) was invested in the project.
The new proprietor, Montayne, sees potential in the properties. “We recognised the enormous value of the chalets’ history, which our visitors and guests really appreciate,” says Davin MacIntosh, partner at Montayne. The resort now serves as a living museum, according to the company’s website.
And there are further plans for the plot on which the chalets are located, which covers the equivalent of almost 80 football pitches. In addition to a spa and further chalets, there are also plans for a “Swiss guides great hall”, a venue for events, weddings, exhibitions and conferences.
Although the preservation of historical sites does not appear to be as much of a cultural movement in Canada as it is in Switzerland, the investor has recognised the cultural value of these houses. Ilona Spaar says: “For me, it’s not a contradiction to preserve these historic remnants and integrate contemporary design.”
More
‘A dream come true’: preservation and restoration of historic Swiss chalets in Canada
Once inside the Aemmer chalet, it becomes clear that the history of the house has been deliberately given its place. The bathroom and kitchen are modern, but the rooms are sprinkled with loving details reminiscent of their former Swiss inhabitants: edelweiss wallpaper, military blanket, tobacco pipe, ice axe, Swiss cookery book, and pictures of the Swiss mountain guides and their families everywhere.
‘No more enjoyable spot’
The town of Golden, the kilometre-long train rattling past in the valley, the Columbia River glistening in the sun, the Rockies: the view from the plateau on which the chalets stand remains impressive. “No more enjoyable spot can be imagined to spend a bright autumn afternoon than the upper veranda of the Feuz chalet,” wrote Mrs Arthur (Ellen) Spragge, author of the book From Ontario to the Pacific by the CPR, more than 100 years ago.
Walter Feuz’s eldest granddaughter, 83-year-old Margaret Murry, is now standing on this very veranda. She herself has lived in Edmonton, 550km away, for 56 years. However, she grew up in Golden. As a young woman, she lived with her husband in one of the chalets for six-and-a-half years – “a starter home”, as she calls it.
Murry is happy that the houses are still standing. She thinks outstanding work has been done on the renovations, “but to be honest, I would have been even happier if they had just stayed the way they were”, she says. She misses the originals, and says it just doesn’t feel the same after the renovation work.
Pride in Swiss traces
In the meantime, further celebrations and a conference are taking place in the local civic centre. More alphorns, the male voice choirs again, more applause. All of this takes place under the eyes of many Swiss Abroad who have found their new home on the other side of the world, some who emigrated here several decades ago, as well as young compatriots who have only recently landed in the middle of the Rockies.
There is the Swiss former professional ice hockey player who runs a lodge with his wife and four children, or the young marketing expert who stayed after his gap year. Or the 79-year-old heli-skiing pioneer, who is now considered a true legend in Canadian mountain sports, or the retired teacher who visited Edelweiss Village with her students years ago.
They are all here because they have a special relationship with the Swiss mountain guides. Some are sitting on the podium, others are listening in the audience or working behind the scenes for the foundation. But they are all proud of the mark that their old homeland has left on this new one.
Spaar and Roduit are also proud of their accomplishment, having achieved within a very short space of time what they hardly dared to dream of at the beginning. Thanks to them, the story of the Swiss mountain guides in the Rockies has a bright future.
More
Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Translated from German by Katherine Price/ts
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.