Kilby Provincial Park is a

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Kilby Park is located in Harrison Mills, on the Harrison River overlooking Harrison Bay in the Upper

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 the ...

of southwestern British Columbia. It comprises with 30

campsite A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using te ...

s and a

boat launch A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

. The park offers a sandy summer beach and fall/winter viewing of

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

s and migrating

trumpeter swan The trumpeter swan (''Cygnus buccinator'') is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl, with a wingspan of 185 to 250 cm (6 ft 2 in to 8 ft 2 ...

s from Alaska.

Kilby Historic Site

Kilby Historic Site is a living history site bringing early life in the Fraser Valley to light. The heritage farm includes the 1906 General Store Museum and Manchester House Hotel & Post Office, as well as costumed interpreters, friendly farm animals and an orchard playground. The focal point is the General store, once a

temperance hotel A coffee palace was an often large and elaborate residential hotel that did not serve alcohol, most of which were built in Australia in the late 19th century. A modest temperance hotel was opened in 1826 by activist Gerrit Smith in his hometo ...

built on

piling A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element ...

s and linked to the railway station by a ramp to its second storey. Thomas and Eliza Kilby converted it to a general store in 1906. Their son, Acton, took over the reins in 1922 and inherited the store when Thomas died in 1928. He and his wife Jessie would continue to operate and manage the store until 1977. In 1926, automobiles began to appear at Harrison Mills, and the Kilbys installed

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

-fed gas pumps that served travellers till 1977. In 1973, Acton received a plaque from

Imperial Oil Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...

, rewarding him for fifty years of service. Situated on a

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

, the General Store and other buildings were elevated and connected with

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of bridge ...

s. Today, visitors can see a fascinating gallery of store products and enjoy firsthand involvement with the intriguing artefacts of the farm and its current

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

References

BC Parks
* * * Provincial parks of British Columbia Lower Mainland Kilby Museum Heritage sites in British Columbia History museums in British Columbia Kent, British Columbia 1973 establishments in British Columbia Protected areas established in 1973 Farm museums in Canada {{BritishColumbia-park-stub