Harrison Hot Springs is a village located at the southern end of

Harrison Lake 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 sou ...

in the

Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from th ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada. It is a part of the

Fraser Valley Regional District The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) is a regional district in British Columbia, Canada. Its headquarters are in the city of Chilliwack. The FVRD covers an area of 13,361.74 km2 (5,159 sq mi). It was created in 1995 by a ...

; its immediate neighbour is the District of Kent, which includes the town of

Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

. As its name would suggest, it is a resort community known for its

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

and has a population of just over 1,500 people. It is named after Benjamin Harrison, a former deputy governor of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

History

The Village of Harrison Hot Springs began as a small resort community in 1886, when the opening of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

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 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 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 The Harrison River is a short but large tributary of the Fraser River, entering it near the community of Chehalis, British Columbia, Canada. The Harrison drains Harrison Lake and is the ''de facto'' continuation of the Lillooet River, which fee ...

nearby and the

Stʼatʼimc The Statimc (), also known as the Lillooet (), St̓át̓imc, or Stlatlimx (), are an Interior Salish people located in the southern Whale Mountains and Fraser Canyon region of the British Columbia Interior, Interior of the Canadian province of Bri ...

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, 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 The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

and Harrison Lake. The northernmost of the Lillooet River hot springs is at

Meager Creek Meager Creek is a creek in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It flows northeast into the Lillooet River approximately northwest of the village of Pemberton and is adjacent to the Upper Lillooet Pr ...

, north of Whistler, with another well-known one to the east of Whistler at

Skookumchuck Hot Springs Skookumchuck Hot Springs is a hot spring in British Columbia, Canada. Its pre-colonial, Indigenous name is Tsek Hot Spring or T'sek Hot Spring. The former colonial name is Saint Agnes Well. The springs are located near the First Nation commun ...

, midway between Pemberton and Port Douglas. One feature of this chain of hot springs 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.

Geography

Megatsunami problem

Some geologists consider that an unstable rock face at

Mount Breakenridge Mount Breakenridge, , is a mountain in the Lillooet Ranges of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located on the east side of upper Harrison Lake in the angle of mountains formed by that lake and the Big Silver River. Name The name was confer ...

above the north end of the giant fresh-water fjord of Harrison Lake in the Lower Mainland of southwestern

, Canada, could collapse into the lake, generating a large wave that might destroy the town of Harrison Hot Springs (located at its south end).

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Harrison Hot Springs had a population of 1,905 living in 885 of its 1,045 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 1,468. With a land area of , it had a population density of 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.

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Harrison Hot Springs included: *

Irreligion Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ...

(1,075 persons or 57.6%) *

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

(735 persons or 39.4%) *

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

(30 persons or 1.6%) *

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

(10 persons or 0.5%) *Other (15 persons or 0.8%)

Economy

Harrison Hot Springs' major economy 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 the vacation rentals in the area.

Attractions

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, 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.

Bigfoot

Due to the fact that there have been many sightings of

Bigfoot Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...

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, 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.

Government

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 is part of the Chilliwack-Hope provincial electoral district. Federally, Harrison Hot Springs is in the Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon riding.

Media

References

External links

* *
Lifty Life Hospitality
a local hospitality organization. {{Authority control Hot springs of British Columbia Populated places in the Fraser Valley Regional District Villages in British Columbia