Swiss Canadians in B.C. are trying to save century-old chalets in the Canadian Rockies

Johann Roduit fell in love with the century-old wooden houses in Golden, B.C. in September 2019, when hepassed by the small community in theCanadian Rockies on his way home to Abbotsford from Calgary, Alta.

So when Roduit, originally from the town ofMartignyat the foot of the Swiss Alps, learned from the Golden Museum and Archives last January that the six chaletswere now for sale, he felt they must be preserved.

"It's a moral responsibility to preserve this huge heritage not only for Swiss people, but also for people from Golden, B.C.," Roduit, a board member of the Swiss Canadian Chamber of Commerce, told host Chris Walker on CBC's Daybreak South.

"It's [part of] the history of Canada."

The chalets, collectively known as Edelweiss Village, were built by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1910 and 1912to providehousing tomountain guidesfrom Switzerland, hired to serve Canadian and international mountaineering tourists in the Canadian Rockies, a region the company nicknamed "50 Switzerlands in One" in promotional materials.

In 1959, Walter Feuz, one of the mountain guides, bought all six chalets and the surrounding 50 acres of landafterthe other guides had moved out. He lived in the village until his death in 1984.

Feuz's descendants inherited the properties, but decided last year that it wastime to let them go. The village is now on the market at a listed price of $2.3 million.

Attempts to save Edelweiss Village

Roduit says in 2013, a group of Golden residents initiated a project to preserve the village as a heritage site, in collaboration with Feuz's descendants. The plan didn't work out, however, due to disagreements over how the project should operate.

Over the past year, Roduit has been working with Swiss Canadian historian Ilona Spaar who wrote a book with the Swiss consulate in Vancouver in 2010, about Swiss mountain guides and Edelweiss Village to seek support from the Swiss consulate, the Town of Golden, Tourism Golden Association and Alpine clubs across Canada for the preservation of the village.

After accompanying aSwiss public broadcaster to documentthe Edelweiss Village in late January, the pairdecided to launchthe Saving Swiss Edelweiss Village initiative.

Theysay the initiative will move forward in phases,including setting up a foundation and crowdfunding internationally to buy the village.

Spaar, originally from the resort village of Engelberg in the Swiss Alps, says the goal of the initiative is to transform the village into a cultural hub in Goldento attract Canadian and international tourists.

"We hope to turn it into a very dynamic place, meaning it could become a vacation rental location for all people," she said on Daybreak South.

Spaar saysFeuz's descendants also want to preserve the village and support the initiative, but there's the risk that the village would be boughtbefore the foundation is established so the initiative needs to move forward as swiftly as possible.

Roduit says he and Spaar will meet with lawyers next week aboutsetting up the foundation.