The Pemberton Board of Trade first began lobbying efforts for a road to the south as early as 1933. It wasn't until the development of Whistler as a ski resort in tandem with the Garibaldi Development Association bid for the 1966 Olympics, that the impetus was provided to the Highways Department to extend and improve the narrow gravel road north from Whistler to Pemberton in 1964. In 1969 the road was blacktopped and Pemberton became the northern terminus of the longest north south highway in North America, extending from the Baja in Mexico, through the U.S. via route 1.