The present Wates-Gibson Memorial Hut is the third ACC structure on the third different plot of land to serve skiers and climbers in the Emerite-Tonquin Valley. The original Memorial Hut was on Penstock Creek some 500 metre north of the present hut site It was built in 1930 and lasted 17 years before the foundation gave way and abetter location was sought. The Wates-Memorial Hut remained for the next 12 years on the north shore of Outpost Lake. Unfortunately the location was too close to the shore of the lake for expansion, and in 1959 when the ACC applied to Jasper National Park for a permit to enlarge the hut, it was turned down. The completely new Wates-Gibson Memorial Hut was built on the present site in 1959 after the idea of moving the existing hut and then renovating it was rejected.

The Edmonton section of the ACC initiated the idea for a climbing and skiing hut in the Jasper area in 1927, but found they could not finance it alone. They approached the National Club to assist with the financing, specifically from two funds: the Soldier’s Memorial Fund, set up in remembrance of Canadians who gave their lives in the Great War, and the Slark-Rutishauser Fund, established in the memory of the first ascentionists of Dedoubt Peak in the Ramparts Redoubt, named in concurrence to a protected place of refuge; ironically, Slark and Rutishauser apparently had an accident while descending and they were never seen again. The first hut, built on the north shore of Penstock Creek in 1930 with money from these funds, was simply named the Memorial Hut.

Cyril G Wates was a well-known climber and Club member to the time of his death in 1946 Among other climbing accomplishments, Wates participated in the first ascent of Mt. Geikie, the highest mountain in the Ramparts. Wates was active in the administration of the Club and a driving force behind the construction of the original. Memorial Hut, and served as Club President from 1938 to 1940 The second hut in the area, the Wates-Memorial Hut, was a fitting tribute to a true lover of the Rampart area and a man for whom “the mountains weaved a thread of worship…a thread of peace ”.

Upon the building of the third hut in the area, the name of Rex Gibson was added to its title Gibson was the president of the Club from 1955 to 1957, when he died in a climbing accident after being elected to a second term. Gibson also had a strong affinity for the Tonquin Valley and the Ramparts in particular, where he did much of his earlier climbing with Cyril Wates.