Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada , being about 250 square kilometres (95 mi²) in area. It is about 60 km (37 mi) in length and at its widest almost 9 km (5.6 mi) across. Its southern end, at the resort community of Harrison Hot Springs , is c. 95 km east of downtown Vancouver. East of the lake are the Lillooet Ranges while to the west are the Douglas Ranges . The lake is the last of a series of large north-south glacial valleys tributary to the Fraser along its north bank east of Vancouver , British Columbia . The others to the west are the Chehalis , Stave , Alouette , Pitt , and Coquitlam Rivers . Harrison Lake is a natural lake, not man-made. The lake is supplied primarily from the Lillooet River , which flows into the lake at the northernmost point.
20-613: Harrison Hot Springs is a village located at the southern end of Harrison Lake in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia , Canada. It is a part of the Fraser Valley Regional District ; its immediate neighbour is the District of Kent , which includes the town of Agassiz . As its name would suggest, it is a resort community known for its hot springs and has a population of just over 1,500 people. It
40-491: A children's day, visual art exhibits, various workshops, and two-weekend art markets. The festival also presents ten to twelve professional performing arts events between September and May each year. Due to the fact that there have been many sightings of Bigfoot in the Fraser Valley near Harrison Hot Springs, the village has embraced the image of the creature. The official town mascot, appearing on signs and plush toys,
60-563: A major attraction for tourists who come to stay at the village's spa resort. The hot springs themselves were originally used and revered by the indigenous Sts'ailes (Chehalis) people who live along the Harrison River nearby and the Stʼatʼimc people living around the lake. There are two hot springs: the "Potash" with a temperature of 40 °C, and the "Sulphur" with a temperature of 65 °C. According to Harrison Hot Springs Resort,
80-504: A party of goldfield-bound travelers on Harrison Lake capsized into what they thought was their doom, only to discover the lake at that spot was not freezing, but warm. The springs had already been known to indigenous communities by then. Although the resort flourished in a low-key fashion for years after this discovery was exploited by hoteliers, the Village of Harrison Hot Springs was not incorporated until 1949. Its namesake hot springs are
100-544: A population density of 347.0/km (898.7/sq mi) in 2021. The population of Harrison Hot Springs grew from 1996 to 2006, when the Canadian Census reported 655 people in 1991, 898 in 1996, 1,343 in 2001, and 1,573 in 2006. It has since receded slightly to 1,468 in 2011 and 2016. According to the 2021 census , religious groups in Harrison Hot Springs included: Harrison Hot Springs' major economy
120-520: A tributary of Silver River, and at Harrison Hot Springs . Doctors Point on the lake's northwest shore was a village and Transformer site , with a large rock painting depicting either the spirit of the winds that rule travel on the lake, or a medicine man turned to stone by the Transformer . The lake has imposed a higher risk to recreational users than other lakes in BC as it is colder than many of
140-419: Is "Hot Springs Harry", a sasquatch; there are also several bigfoot sculptures throughout the village. The village has several gift shops that sell sasquatch-themed souvenirs, as well as a sasquatch museum. The Corporation of the Village of Harrison Hot Springs was incorporated as a municipality in 1949 under the initiative of Colonel Andy Naismith (ret). It has a mayor and four councillors. Harrison Hot Springs
160-459: Is a provincial park in Kent, British Columbia , Canada . The park was established 1968, in its present condition. It actually began in 1959 as a 20 hectare inland fjord called Green Point Park, which was expanded into a picnicking area in 1960. Eight years later the park was expanded greatly and renamed. It was named after Sasquatch (a Halkomelem Salish word), the cryptid said to be endemic to
180-624: Is named after Benjamin Harrison, a former deputy governor of the Hudson's Bay Company . The Village of Harrison Hot Springs began as a small resort community in 1886, when the opening of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought the lakeside springs within a short carriage ride of the transcontinental mainline. In its first promotion as a resort it was known as St. Alice's Well, although Europeans had discovered it decades earlier when
200-720: Is part of the Chilliwack-Hope provincial electoral district. Federally, Harrison Hot Springs is in the Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon riding. Harrison Lake At the north end of the lake is a small First Nations community of the In-SHUCK-ch Nation , Port Douglas , known in the St'at'imcets language as Xa'xtsa (ha-htsa). There are three hot springs along the shores of the lake or near it, including near Port Douglas, at Clear Creek,
220-489: Is that the Harrison Hot Springs vent is the most sulfuric, and there is consistently less sulfur content as one goes northwards, with the springs at Meager Creek having almost no scent at all. Some geologists consider that an unstable rock face at Mount Breakenridge above the north end of the giant fresh-water fjord of Harrison Lake in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia , Canada, could collapse into
SECTION 10
#1732800973928240-412: Is tourism in relation to the hot springs, with over half of employment found in the service industries, with much of the rest split between retail, government, construction and manufacturing, as well as minor activity in other areas. The hospitality industry employs a large majority of the jobs in Harrison Hot Springs, with much of the jobs coming from hotels and motels, and a growing economy stemming from
260-731: The Fraser near the community of Chehalis . Harrison Lake was important in the early history of British Columbia as one of the water links on the Douglas Road , which accessed the goldfields of the upper Fraser during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858-60. It was named "Harrison" by Hudson's Bay Company Governor Simpson , after Benjamin Harrison , a director (later Deputy Governor) of the Hudson's Bay Company. Sasquatch Provincial Park Sasquatch Provincial Park
280-484: The Silver River and Twenty-Mile Bay is the northern end of the lake's longest and largest island, aptly named Long Island , 9.5 km long, 2.6 km wide. The other main island of any size in the lake is Echo Island , 4 km long and 2.2 km wide. It is offshore from Harrison Hot Springs , and is immediately east of the forested canyon of the Harrison River at the lake's outflow. The Harrison enters
300-605: The area. The park is 1217 hectares in size. It is characterized by a series of pocket lakes, a unique second-growth and birch forest, and scenic mountain ridges. The park is located in the District of Kent, 6 kilometres north of Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia . The following recreational activities are available: vehicle accessible camping, picnicking, hiking, interpretive walks, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, motorised boating, fishing, windsurfing, and waterskiing. This British Columbia protected areas related article
320-403: The lake, generating a large wave that might destroy the town of Harrison Hot Springs (located at its south end). In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Harrison Hot Springs had a population of 1,905 living in 885 of its 1,045 total private dwellings, a change of 29.8% from its 2016 population of 1,468. With a land area of 5.49 km (2.12 sq mi), it had
340-520: The lakes in the surrounding areas. Harrison Lake was implicated in the deaths of three people in 2015, and five total since 2008. To the east of the Lillooet River's entrance, at the northernmost part of Harrison Lake, there is a small bay named Little Harrison Lake. The site of one of British Columbia 's oldest ghost towns , called Port Douglas , is located at the north shore of Little Harrison Lake, although there's virtually nothing left of
360-663: The town. On the eastern shore of Little Harrison Lake is the rancherie (village) of the Port Douglas Band of the In-SHUCK-ch Nation . Halfway down Harrison Lake on its eastern shore is the valley of the Silver River , also known as the Big Silver River, one of its tributaries being the Little Silver. Opposite Silver River on the west shore of Harrison Lake is Twenty-Mile Bay. Mid-lake between
380-691: The vacation rentals in the area. Aside from its titular springs, Harrison Hot Springs also has the Ranger Station Public Art Gallery, a marina with jet boat tours of the lake available, a nine-hole golf course, and is the closest access point to Sasquatch Provincial Park . In July, Harrison Hot Springs hosts the Harrison Festival of the Arts, a ten-day celebration of world music and art. The annual festival features free outdoor beach concerts, ticketed evening performances,
400-534: The waters average 1300 ppm of dissolved mineral solids, one of the highest concentrations of any mineral spring. This hot spring is one of several lining the valley of the Lillooet River and Harrison Lake. The northernmost of the Lillooet River hot springs is at Meager Creek , north of Whistler , with another well-known one to the east of Whistler at Skookumchuck Hot Springs , midway between Pemberton and Port Douglas. One feature of this chain of hot springs
#927072