Discover the history of Agassiz, British Columbia through archival photographs, historical newspapers, letters, and museum collections. As an Archives Assistant at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum, I research and share the stories of the people, places, businesses, and events that shaped Agassiz and the eastern Fraser Valley. This page is a growing collection of every Agassiz history article published on BC History Diary.
Climbing Mount Cheam (1914)
In 1914, group of scientists from the Agassiz Research Station, their wives, and indigenous guides, climbed Mount Cheam together for the first time. Read about how one of British Columbia’s most iconic hikes looked more than century ago.
Mount Cheam Hike: A Historic Climb from Agassiz, B.C. (1914)
Climbing Mount Cheam in 1914 – Credit: Agassiz-Harrison Museum
What It Was Like Picking Hops in Agassiz, BC in the 1930s
In the 1930’s, hops farming began in Agassiz, British Columbia is often recognized as the birthplace of hops in British Columbia. Mr. A. St. George Hamersley owned over 300 acres and each year thousands of workers would live and work on these farms
What It Was Like Picking Hops in Agassiz, BC in the 1930s
The William McRae Letter Series (1917)
William Gordon McRae was born in 1897 in Agassiz, British Columbia to his parents Ambie and John McRae. He was the oldest of ten children. He had a strong love for airplanes and built his own propeller, and he was eager to be a pilot in the Army. His letters have been kept safely in the archive and have been shared for the first time.
- William McRae’s Letters: A WWI Pilot and Soldier (1916)
- William McRae’s WWI Letters: A Canadian Soldier’s Journey(1916)
- William McRae Letters: Canadian Pilot Training, War Isolation & Conscription Crisis (1917)
- Training for War in Oxford: William McRae’s WWI Letters from England (1917)
- Baseball and Flight Training in Wartime Oxford (1917)
- Crashes and Castles: William McRae’s WWI Letters (1917)
- From British Columbia Aviation School to the Royal Flying Corps: William McRae’s 1917 Letters
- Royal Flying Corps Squadron Training (1917)
- Reported Missing: The Letters of William McRae (1917)
- Missing in Action: A Family’s Search For Answers (1917)
- William Gordon McRae (1897-1917): The Final Letters
The Hazeley Letter Series (1896-1897)
Follow along as we learn about the Wright siblings who travelled from Liverpool, England to Agassiz, British Columbia in 1896. Every week they wrote home from Agassiz to their parents in England about what life was like in the region. In 2025, these letters returned to Agassiz, the very place that they were first written. This collection of letters, photographs, and stories from May, Cecil, Jack, and Harold Wright let us see into their daily lives in Canada. From being chased by chickens to a connection to the Titanic, their stories are being told here for the first time, and you won’t want to miss a moment.
- A Victorian Girl’s First Days in Agassiz, British Columbia (1896)
- Settling Into Life in Agassiz (1896)
- Victorian Tea Time in the Canada in (1896)
- The First Planting Season in Canada (1896)
- Gold Fever, Church Building, and Pioneer Life in Agassiz, BC (1896)
- Life in 1896 Agassiz: Mining Hopes, Farming Plans, and the Mysterious Sister Francis (1896)
- Letters from Hazeley Ranch (1896)
- Repairing the Farm, Building the Church, and Picnics in the Harrison: Hazeley Letters (1896)
- Picking Fruit and Raising Rafters: May’s Letters from Agassiz (1896)
- Skunk Trouble, Haying Season, and Angels on Mt. Cheam(1896)
- Harold Wright’s July 1896 Letter: A Drowning in the Prairie (1896)
- Disasters and Daily Life in Agassiz, BC, 1896: Floods, Train Crash, Wagon Accident, and Mosquito Plague (1896)
- The Great Excursion to Agassiz, British Columbia(1896)
- Autumn in Agassiz (1896)
- Gold Mines and a Winter Trip to Yale, B.C.(1896)
- ‘Frozen Solid’: The Wright Siblings’ First Winter in Canada (1896)
- The Odd Fellows Ball: Dancing Until Dawn in Agassiz, British Columbia (1896)
- A Victorian Christmas in Canada (1896)
- New Year’s in Canada in (1897)
- Winter Life in Agassiz, British Columbia(1897)
- Gold Mining in British Columbia 1897: Peril in the Mountains and Trains Through Agassiz (1897)
- Family Tension & Chinatown in Agassiz, B.C. (1897)
- Observation Cars, Mining Camps, and Settler Life (1897)
- The Final Chapter of the Hazeley Letters: How the Story Ends (1897)
More stories coming soon…