Only one month away!  Sasquatch Days 2013 will be held on June 8th and 9th on the beach front here in beautiful Harrison Hot Springs.

This cultural event is a collaboration between the Village of Harrison Hot Springs and the local First Nations Band of the Sts’ailes and includes War Canoe Races, Men’s, Women’s, Mixed Doubles, Buckskins, Small and Large Canoes.  There will be a salmon barbeque, Drumming, Artisans, Sasquatch Talks, Medicine walks, Games and Cedar Weaving.

Ever wonder what the difference was between War Canoes and Dragon Boats?

Dragonboats are the basis of the team paddling sport of dragon boat racing an amateur watersport which has its roots in an ancient folk ritual of contending villagers held over the past 2000 years throughout southern China. While ‘competition’ has taken place annually for more than 20 centuries as part of religious ceremonies and folk customs, dragon boat racing has emerged in modern times as an international sport, beginning in Hong Kong in 1976.

Typically, a war canoe will be faster than a dragon boat over any given distance, because of a better hull shape (narrower and without the characteristic ‘w’ shape of dragon boat hulls), lighter construction, and the kneeling position allowing for a fuller, more powerful stroke than the sitting position used in dragon boats. The term ‘war canoe’ is derived from large Native American canoes intended for war, and war canoeing was in fact a popular sport in Vancouver,  before large gatherings of indigenous people were outlawed for a time beginning in 1922.  War canoeing among indigenous communities is enjoying a revival today, although there as yet has been little interaction with non-indigenous teams.A war canoe holds 15 paddlers including one coxswain, or cox, for steering.

Native Americans also utilized canoes in warfare, ranging from small, lightweight canoes for rapid raids to large, ceremonial canoes amply decorated for conferences and other events. As an attack craft, a canoe is actually quite well designed, because it can be easy to maneuver with a skilled crew, and it can be extremely fast with a lot of paddlers working together to propel the canoe. Native American war canoes are sometimes seen at ceremonial events held by groups with a tradition of canoe building

North of Highway 7, running along the west side of the Harrison River, lies the village of Sts’ailes, whose traditional territory includes Harrison Hot Springs and Harrison Lake and includes the watersheds of Harrison Lake and River, Chehalis River and the Fraser River.  The name Sts’ailes, meaning the Beating Heart, comes from halfway up the west side of Harrison Lake.  In this area, Xals, the Transformer, battled a once-powerful shaman called the Doctor and turned him to stone.  In an effort to preserve and limit him, Xals broke apart pieces of his body and spread them throughout the territory, creating landmarks.  Where his heart landed became known as the village of Sts’ailes.  The usual English name Chehalis is identical to that of the much more numerous Chehalis people of southern Puget Sound in Washington.  By Sts’ailes tradition, the southern Chehalis were separated from their homeland as a consequence of the Great Flood.  Fish and seashell fossils found in abundance near Mystery Creek (cited as one of the meeting places of Sasquatch) deep in Sts’ailes territory, seems to support this Native American Hypothesis.

The culture in Sts’ailes runs very strong.  They take great pride in what they do and how they carry themselves particularly through their ceremonies and in their spirituality.  They “live” the culture.  The people of Sts’ailes perform many ceremonies such as The First Salmon Ceremony and Ground Breakings for new buildings.  The drummers of Sts’ailes have  vast knowledge of traditional songs and their artists are well known in the territory and beyond.

With a focus on traditional teachings, personal growth and high academic standards at all levels, the Sts’ailes education department is a model of educational achievement. From pre-school age, Children of the community are gently guided through an education curriculum that includes cultural education and the Halq’emeylem language.  Through workshops, children and teens are being taught traditional skills such as drum making, drumming and singing.  If Sts’ailes village is the Beating Heart of the territory, the community school is the Beating Heart of the Village.

What today is known as the Sasquatch Crossing Eco Lodge, was first a private estate built on Sts’ailes traditional territory in 1903.  About 15 years ago, it was remodeled into an Eco Lodge.  Then in the spring of 2009, Sts’ailes purchased the beautiful building and the Eco Lodge is now fully owned and operated by the band.  Recently, the band opened a renowned retreat facility known as Lhawathet.  The new building provides accommodations, catering and meeting space for conferences and gatherings, business retreats and meetings.

Archaeological findings indicate that Sasquatches were known by humans up to 10,000 years ago.  The word Sasquatch comes from the Coast Salish word Sasqac, which is the name of a spiritual creature who is believed to have the ability to change to human form at will.

Pictures courtesy of http://www.stsailes.com/whats-new/photo-gallery, see also www.lhawathet.ca

British Columbia had two big gold rushes, one in 1858 on the Fraser River and the other in 1862 in the Cariboo district. In each, tens of thousands of men (and a few women) headed north to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island to obtain a valid “mining license” which permitted them to prospect for gold.

In 1858 Fort Victoria was tiny. No more than 500 immigrants lived on southern Vancouver Island at the time but within two months the population grew to over 20,000. Victoria became a tent city as miners camped while they purchased their mining licenses, and all the supplies – equipment, food, clothing, they would need for their journey to the gold-fields.

The Cariboo Gold Rush is the most famous of the gold rushes in British Columbia although it attracted fewer Americans than the original Fraser rush. One reason may have been the American Civil War, with many who had been around after the Fraser gold rush going home to take sides. 

The Douglas Road, aka the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior.  Over 30,000 men are reckoned to have travelled the route, although by the end of the 1860s it was virtually abandoned due to the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road.  The route consisted of a series of wagon roads connected via lake travel. There were four lakes on the route, From Harrison Lake to the road’s commencement at Port Douglas, Little Lillooet Lake, Lillooet Lake, Anderson Lake and Seton Lake, the foot of which is within a few miles of the Fraser River at today’s town of Lillooet and from where the last few miles of wagon road completed the official Douglas Road portion of the road to gold.

The traditional story of the Harrison Hot Spring’s discovery, talks about one member of a nearly frozen group of miners who were returning down the lake from Port Douglas, falling into the water from being either over anxious to reach the shore or from weakness. In any event he was so happy with the warmth, that his companions soon joined him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Douglasroadmap1_600.jpg

For 60 years, hops, a basic ingredient in beer, were the main industry in the Agassiz Area of British Columbia. At the height of the business, 300 acres of a total holding of 450 acres were planted with hops. The first hop yards, planted in 1892, belonged to the B.C. Hop Company.

Hops were harvested from August to early October every year and during that time Agassiz prospered. With the arrival of a thousand pickers, the town’s normal population swelled to 15 hundred and business flourished. Many town merchants increased their sales by setting up small stalls beside the hop yards to serve the pickers. Reliable men with teams of horses were hired to plow and cultivate the hop fields. In the early days pickers came exclusively from First Nation families but later the work force included locals and Chinese immigrants who had come to Canada to work on the CPR line. Many plants were destroyed by downy mildew around 1935 and as it began to spread, pesticides were used but the sprays proved to be expensive and ineffective.  Still, from 1939 to 1945 the hop industry boomed in Agassiz.  The Famous Fraser River flood of 1948 annihilated the hop fields, the industry rapidly declined and in 1952 the hop yards moved to the Creston Valley. The fertile soil that had for 60 years nourished a bounty of hops, was planted with corn and hay as dairy farms began to prosper in the Agassiz area.

This October, Harrison Hot Springs will present the first of what we hope will be an annual event, The Harrison Beer Fest.  Get your tickets early and join us on October 26th and 27th for what already promises to be this years hottest hop happening!!http://www.harrisonbeerfest.com/

http://www.agassizharrisonmuseum.org/

Thousands of years ago, a huge blanket of ice covered everything in sight except the highest mountain peaks.      As the ice mass slowly receded, it bulldozed tones of earth and rock lying in its path, carving out a lakebed.  As the earth warmed and the glaciers melted, these scooped out trenches filled with water creating Harrison Lake.

The lake is tidal.  Ocean tides influence water levels in the Fraser River, the Harrison River and even Harrison Lake.  As far back as 8000 years ago, local Stolo people have harvested trees here for use in building enormous long houses, dugout canoes and carvings.                                                     

 From 1931 to 1937, Green Point was used as a base camp by the Green Point logging company.  Massive trestles were built and steam locomotives were used to access the wilderness for further tree harvesting.  Remnants of these trestles still exist today near the entrance to Sasquatch Provincial Park, less than a kilometer away.  The modern road network in Sasquatch Park follows much of the original logging rail network

 In the autumn months, migrating salmon fill the waters at Green Point and Eagles and seals follow.  Wildlife abounds from squirrels and rabbits to deer and brown bear, although they are keenly sensitive to human activity and make themselves scarce during the times the park is in use.

 Only a five kilometer drive from the four-way stop in Harrison Village, the park is beautifully maintained and offers a boat launch, a large parking area, washroom facilities and picnic tables.  The beach  is a mixture of sand and pebbles and is a wonderful place to explore and a child’s paradise filled with nature’s wonders.