Harrison Mills, British Columbia

Harrison Mills is an agricultural farming and tourism-based community west of Agassiz, British Columbia. The community is a part of the Fraser Valley Regional District. Harrison Mills is home to the British Columbia Heritage Kilby Museum and Campground.

Demographics

(according to Statistics Canada 2001 census)
Population: 716
Growth Rate (1996-2001): -7.4%
Total Private Dwellings: 921
Area: 0.2 km².
Density: 3655.5 people per km².

History

Harrison Mills is located on a floodplain at the western foot of Mount Woodside at the outlet of Harrison Bay, a large lake-like backwater of the Harrison River just before that river's confluence with the Fraser. Harrison Bay is the home of the Scowlitz (Scaulits) people, whose main reserve is on the bay's western shore, across from Harrison Mills, and also of the St'Ailes or Chehalis people, whose reserve is located on the north side of the bay along the lower Harrison River and around that river's ocnfluence with its tributary, the Chehalis. The Scowlitz and Chehalis peoples once had large and famously-carved longhouse villages, long since destroyed by the encouragement of missionaries . An archaeological site on the Harrison Mills side of the bay, the Scowlitz Mounds, also known as the Fraser Valley Pyramids, is under investigation by Simon Fraser University and the Scowlitz First Nation and represent an unusual period in the anthropological and cultural history of the Fraser Valley. The Scowlitz and Sts'Alies are Halqemeylem-speaking and are part of the

cultural group ( .

The dialect of Halqemeylem spoken by the Sts'Ailes, whose name means "beating heart", includes the word "sesqac", which is the source of the English word "sasquatch". The vicinity of Harrison Bay, Harrison Mills and the lower Harrison River is reputed to have the greatest number and density of sasquatch sightings worldwide. The sasquatch is the emblem of the Chehalis First Nation and is sacred in Sts'Ailes culture. The opening of Fort Langley in 1827 downriver began changing the traditional patterns of life for the Scowlitz and Chehalis by the introduction of new goods and also an end to raids by the Euclataws Kwakwaka'wakw (Southern Kwakiutl) of Cape Mudge and other northern coastal tribes.

Much more far-reaching was the impact of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858, during which 30,000 men headed up the Fraser to its canyon stretches upstream from Hope in just a few short weeks. Many stopped along the way, with all sandbars along the Fraser around Harrison Mills and throughout the Fraser Valley turned over by prospectors in the search for gold. Marginal amounts were found around Harrison Mills and as far downstream as the present site of Mission, but only above Hope were there paying bars. .

References

*Daphne Sleigh, "People of the Harrison"
*Donald J. Hauka, "McGowan's War"
*Bruce Ramsay, "Ghost towns of British Columbia"