Hatzic is a historic community in the Central Fraser Valley region of the

Lower Mainland The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 ...

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, located on the east side of the City of Mission and including areas beyond the municipal boundary to the east and northeast. Hatzic is the location of two very important historical sites in British Columbia, the

mission school A mission school or missionary school is a religious school originally developed and run by Christian missionaries. The mission school was commonly used in the colonial era for the purposes of Westernization of local people. These may be day s ...

of the Oblate Fathers (OMI),

St. Mary's Indian Residential School St. Mary's Indian Residential School was the name of two Canadian Indian residential school system, Indian residential schools in Mission, British Columbia. The first was operated by the Roman Catholic Church of Canada, and the second was operated ...

, the name sake of the City of Mission, and Xá:ytem, an archaeological site and museum dating back over 9,000 years. Xá:ytem is a National Heritage Site of Canada. Also notable is Ferncliff Gardens, a private floral operation now becoming a heritage site. Hatzic Slough, which is part of the drainage for the oxbow Hatzic Lake, is the site of one of the world's largest dry-sorting yards for raw timber. A former railway station named Hatzic was located between the outlet of Hatzic Lake and the foot of the rise to the benchland where most of residential Hatzic is today.BC Names/GeoBC entry "Hatzic (community)"
/ref> Mission's Fraser River Heritage Park is to the west and incorporates lands formerly belonging to the Oblate mission, including the foundations of the original school, though it is accessed from Mission proper, not via Hatzic. Hatzic is one of Mission's older suburban neighbourhoods and is home to Hatzic Secondary School and various elementary schools. Overlooking it from above is

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

, a Benedictine monastery established in the 1950s, which is part of the Ferndale neighbourhood of Mission. Across the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

from the benchland Hatzic proper overlooks and where Hatzic Valley is located is the community of Dewdney, standing astride the bridge where British Columbia Highway 7 leads onto Nicomen Island. Across the

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

from Hatzic is the northeast sector of Matsqui Prairie.

Climate

Hatzic has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

( Köppen climate type ''Cfb''). The average annual precipitation is . Extremes vary from , recorded on December 29, 1968 to , recorded on August 8, 1978.

Related names and local geography

Related names, which more or less are also considered part of Hatzic, are Hatzic Island, which is in the centre of Hatzic Lake, north of which are the farming communities of Hatzic Prairie and Durieu, which together form part of the Hatzic Valley, along with communities to the north of Hatzic Prairie around Allan Lake, McConnell Creek and Miracle Valley. The Hatzic Valley forms the southern portion of Electoral Area 'F' of the Fraser Valley Regional District and comprises the old course of the Stave River's glacier and its terminal moraine at the north end of the valley, most of which is fertile floodplain.

References

{{coord, 49, 09, 00, N, 122, 15, 00, W, display=title Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Populated places on the Fraser River Mission, British Columbia