As the autumn winds wrap us in their chilly embrace, they also usher in the spooky season with a ghostly flourish! If you’re a fan of the storytelling of local lore and legends, haunted history, and spirits and spectres that roam the region, read on for fascinating facts and eerie tidbits; and learn the best ways to celebrate the spooky season in the Harrison River Valley.
LOCAL LEGENDS: SA:SQ’ETS (SASQUATCH)
The Harrison River Valley has been a hotbed of Sasquatch activity for eons! Hiding in the deepest corners of of dark and tangled forests is said to live this towering, primate-like hairy beast. With close to 40 recorded sightings near the Village since the 1900s, the legend lives on!
The Sts’ailes People have an incredibly rich, age-old, and deep spiritual connection to Sasquatch. In fact, the word “Sasquatch” is a mispronunciation or anglicized version of the Sts’ailes word, Sa:sq’ets, that tells the tale of how the massive, hairy creature is a caretaker that watches over the land. Stories, passed down through generations, have told of Sasquatch in this region for thousands of years – in fact, red ochre paintings at Sa:sq’etstel (Sasquatch Mountain) have been found to be up to 7,000 years old. Oral tradition tells that Sasquatch avoids being seen due to the supernatural ability to shape-shift and walk in both the physical and spiritual realms.
This newspaper article reports of a Sasquatch seizing a woman from the front lawn of the Harrison Resort Hotel, and escaping with her into the woods. Described by eye-witnesses as being 13 feet tall, he grabbed her from a small group standing near the lakefront and leapt a fence with her tucked under his arm. A witness to the event was said to be suffering from shock and confined to her hotel room under sedatives!
This article also corroborates the meeting place of Sasquatch, as it is believed that in the caves of Mystery Valley, on the west side of Harrison Lake, Sasquatch gather every four years, on the night of July’s full moon. For four nights, signal fires are kept burning. The year 1940 was the last noted year the signal fires were seen burning (although a sighting was reported as recently as 2009)!
Another well-documented incident took place in Ruby Creek in 1941. The Chapman family reported seeing a creature 7.5 feet tall, with a body human in shape, but with exceedingly long arms, a tremendously thick and muscled chest, and immense shoulders, covered in very dark hair. It had battered open a woodshed door, and lifted and broken open a 55 gallon tub of fish and feasted on it. The creature made a call that was described as a terrifying, roaring gurgling-whistle; and it returned every night for a week, leaving massive foot prints. Eventually the family was so unnerved, they moved out, never to come back again!
Visit the Sasquatch Museum at 499 Hot Springs Road and take a spellbinding journey through historical narratives, compelling artifacts and documented sightings that will have you laser-focused on watching for the hairy creature on your hikes and adventures in the Harrison River Valley! Want to have photographic evidence of your time with Sasquatch? Take the Sasquatch Trail and visit the many Sasquatch that inhabit the Village!
HISTORIC HAUNTS
AGASSIZ-HARRISON MUSEUM
Visit the Agassiz-Harrison Museum and you just might experience chills up your spine if resident ghost Maude, glides by! The Museum and Information Centre, built way back in 1893, is located in one of Canada’s oldest wooden Canadian Pacific Railway stations.
Research has shown that in her mortal years, Maude was a cleaner at the old Bella Vista Hotel and was married to a CP station agent. After her death, she haunted the Bella Vista Hotel until it was demolished, then made her way to the Agassiz-Harrison Museum as the railway artifacts evoked memories of her dear husband and his career with CP.
Maude spends most of her time in the attic, but makes her presence known on occasion as when she kept knocking a picture of a wall. Staff would put it back up, and she would knock it back down, further and further away from the wall. Eventually staff staff realized she must have not been happy with it. It is said that Maude is lonely, so she’d love the company of visitors to the museum! The museum is located at 7011 Pioneer Avenue in Agassiz, and is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm, and Sunday from noon to 4pm.
Ghost Maude prefers to spend her time in the attic of the Agassiz-Harrison Museum.
KILBY HISTORIC SITE
With over 120 years of history, Kilby Historic Site stands as the only reminder of a once thriving community. The site is known to have haunted hot spots in the 1906 General Store and Hotel! Their annual event, Bumps in the Night: An Evening with the Paranormal, involves searching for spirit activity with Vancouver-based Cornerstone Supernatural Team. Watch as the team sets up their equipment in a bid to capture paranormal evidence through electronic voice phenomena (EVP), thermal images, and photographic evidence. The tour will visit four haunted areas in the museum and hotel, and one on the grounds. Warm-up refreshments will be provided (hot apple cider and sweet treats). This event can be frightening, so is not suitable for kids under age 10. There are still tickets available for some time slots on October 25th and 26th. Tickets are $45/person and are available here. Get your tickets soon as they are selling fast!
What spirits from days past lurk behind doors and in the hallways of Kilby Historic Site? Find out for yourself on October 25 and 26th! Photos: Kilby Historic Site
For a spooky night more suitable for the whole family, attend their Halloween event on October 26 from 11am to 3pm. Visit the hair-raising hotel, the graveyard, and try the bone-chilling challenges for some sweet treats. Get into the spooky spirit by wearing a costume, and bring a treat bag along to do some trick-or-treating!
HERITAGE SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR
For an experience a little less hair-raising, but equally as prolific in its spellbinding history, take the Heritage Self-Guided Walking Tour! Created by the Agassiz-Harrison Historical Society, this walk features historic buildings, locations, and families within the Harrison River Valley. These self-guided walking tour brochures area available at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum and the Harrison Visitor Centre & Sasquatch Museum.
Learn about landmarks like the Village of Harrison Hot Springs Office Building, likely the oldest building in the village, which was built in 1890 as a summer cottage! Take a look back in time at the spot of the current Harrison Hot Springs Resort – on that very location once stood the St. Alice Hotel. Construction started in 1886, and an impressive three-storey wood frame building was erected. The hotel could accommodate 130 guests and featured parlours, bedrooms, dining rooms, billiard rooms and offices. Mysteriously, the St. Alice Motel burned to the ground in July 1920.
The illustrious St. Alice Hotel, an elegant addition to the mountainous landscape (left), mysteriously burned to the ground (right) in July 1920.
Head to the hot springs source, and imagine its beginnings. For thousands of years the hot springs were regarded as a healing place by the Coast Salish People and local Sts’ailes First Nations. The hot springs were stumbled upon by three European miners returning from the Cariboo gold fields in 1858. Their boat capsized, and, expecting to perish in the icy waters, they discovered that at that spot, the lake was not freezing, but warm. The spot was later called St. Alice’s Well, named after a daughter of BC’s first governor. A stone wall was eventually built to enclose the hot springs in 1885, and soon after a two-storey bathhouse was constructed over the hot springs, with guest rooms on the second floor to accommodate those who were unable to walk over from the hotel. The bathhouse was destroyed by fire in 1905.
We hope we’ve piqued your curiosity and invite you to immerse yourself in the incredible legends, lore, and history of the Harrison River Valley. Start your visit by stopping at our Visitor Information Centre and Sasquatch Museum at 499 Hot Springs Road. Don’t forget to tag us on social media with media @tourismharrison and #HarrisonRiverValley – we love to see your adventures in the region!
