Harrison Lake: New Visitors and Mining Excitement in 1897
In the spring of 1897, Harrison Lake was alive with speculation, surveying crews, and renewed hopes of gold. Eager prospectors travelled up the lake, new mining claims were discussed daily in Agassiz, and mechanical inventions promised to transform mineral extraction in the Fraser Valley. Harrison Lake and Harrison Hot Springs were in the beginning years of what is still a renowned resort destination.
This post examines the Wright family’s experience in Agassiz during February and March 1897, a period marked by Harrison Lake mining speculation, new mechanical inventions, and the daily work of maintaining a household at Hazeley Ranch.
Harrison Lake Mining Speculation
By early 1897, mining activity along Harrison Lake had become a major topic of conversation in Agassiz. Even those not directly involved in mining were affected by the constant flow of prospectors, speculation about new claims, and enthusiasm surrounding mechanical innovations designed to improve extraction. May Wright’s observations reflect how mining excitement permeated everyday settler life, shaping local optimism even as most families continued to rely on farming, domestic labour, and community exchange to survive.
Harrison Lake Then and Now
Harrison Lake and Harrison Hot Springs has changed over the years, but it still remains a popular tourist destination. With the hot springs, health spas, fishing, boating, and time in nature, the area remains a beautiful spot to visit.
Harrison Lake and Harrison Hot Springs Then
St. Alice Hotel on Harrison Lake
In 1880, Mr. J. Charles Armstrong secured a Crown grant for 40 acres at a cost of $40.00 in what is now the village of Harrison Hot Springs. The St. Alice Hotel was built on this land in 1885-1886 by Mr. John. R. Brown with materials brought up the Harrison River by boat. He was married to Luella Agassiz, and is referenced in the Hazeley letters as Mr. and Mrs. John Brown.
Located closer to the mountain than the present day hotel, the St. Alice was a three story structure with 40 rooms, capable of housing up to 160 guests. The advertising for the hotel claimed that everything from gout to heart disease could be alleviated or cured.
Harrison Lake Fish Hatchery
The Harrison Lake Fish Hatchery opened in Greenpoint Park near the Hot Springs in 1907. As of it’s opening year it was considered the banner fish-breeding establishment in the Dominion.
Harrison Hot Spring’s First General Store
Prolific local businessman, Mr. Charles Inkman opened the first general store in Harrison Hot Springs in 1894. As business boomed with from new residents and gold miners, it also attracted negative attention. Mr. Inkman’s store was robbed by men expecting to cash in on his hard work.
Harrison Lake Today
Today Harrison Lake and the Harrison Hot Springs is a popular tourist destination. Like nearby Agassiz, British Columbia, it has managed to remain a small community.
Tourism Harrison has all the information on visiting and exploring Harrison Hot Springs and Harrison Lake.
Fundraising in Agassiz and the Indian Famine Fund (1897)
In early 1897, residents of Agassiz participated in international relief efforts through local fundraising for the India Famine Fund. Although Agassiz was still a small and developing settlement, community members organized social events—such as dances and benefit gatherings—to raise money for famine relief in British India. One such event, the The Odd Fellows Ball: Dancing Until Dawn in Agassiz, British Columbia (1896) reportedly raised approximately $50.00, a significant contribution for a rural Fraser Valley community.
The Wright family’s letters place this fundraising within the broader rhythm of settler life, where charitable work existed alongside farm labour, household management, and the uncertainties of mining speculation. These efforts reflect how late-nineteenth-century settler communities in British Columbia remained closely tied to imperial networks, responding to global crises even while facing local economic and environmental challenges.
From Agassiz to Vancouver: Mr. George in the 1897 Hotel Records
Newspaper evidence from the period further enriches this picture. A contemporary hotel residents list published in a Vancouver newspaper records Mr. George staying at a hotel in Vancouver during his absence from Agassiz—confirming details mentioned in May Wright’s correspondence. His appearance in the hotel register suggests both the mobility of working men in the region and the importance of Vancouver as a commercial and social hub for Fraser Valley residents seeking opportunity, rest, or entertainment.
Together, the letters and newspaper records reveal how Agassiz residents moved between local obligations and wider networks of travel, charity, and commerce. Fundraising for the India Famine Fund was not an isolated act of generosity, but part of a broader pattern of engagement that linked everyday life in Agassiz to events unfolding far beyond British Columbia’s borders.
Letters
May’s Letter to Mother-February 25th , 1897
In this letter, May is visiting her friend close by in Harrison Hot Springs for the week. She shares the excitement felt amongst the locals regarding the gold mines as well as a new machine invented to make mining more efficient.
Harrison Hot Springs
British Columbia,
February 25, 1897My dearest Mother,
I will write my letter to-day as I am going home to-morrow & after that I expect I shall have my hands full for a few days.
Everyone here is in a great state of excitement, every day two or three men & sometimes more go up to the mines. Del… has been offered $75,000 for his mine which is only twenty miles from here up the lake. Mr. Jack Brown’s mine seems to be going to turn out well, he has a has had a town site surveyed there; he says that the mountain in fron of our house is of just the same constrution as his mine, so we may have a mining camp there soon.
Mr. Brown seems in a very good way now, he has invented a machine for cracking rock which he has been very anxious about all the summer, but at last it has been finished & works perfectly it will crunch up rock as fine as flour, the new foundry in Victoria in building special sheds to make this machine, everyone thinks that his fortune is made. I am so glad he has had so much bad luck.
Mr. George has gone to Victoria he said he would be back yesterday but he didn’t turn up. I didn’t expect him as I think he will stay as long as his money lasts, it will do him good as he isn’t at all well & hasn’t had a change for two years.
I just saw Harold yesterday for a minute, he says they are getting on all right, he has been baking but the bread didn’t turn out very well. We haven’t hear from Mr. Hamersley yet, I hope we shall soon, as I don’t care to spend too much work on that house if we are going to turn out at once.
We haven’t been doing much up here, we go for a drive every afternoon to the station & see somebody, but we don’t do much else. I am trying to get all my writing done, but I get rather tired of it.
Love to everybody,
Your affectionate daughter,
May Wright
May’s Letter to Mother – March 5, 1897
In this letter, May awaits the return of their handyman and friend, Mr. George, from his trip to Victoria. She shares that Cecil has taken up new odd jobs to help in the community while she has been working on the inside of the house to make it feel more like home.
Hazeley
Agassiz, B.C.
March 5, 1897My dearest Mother,
I will begin my letter to-night even if I don’t finish it, I came back from the Springs this week, the house was wonderfully tidy on the whole; on Sunday Cecil went out with Mr. Hamerseley to the Springs so I went to church alone & I waited for the train on the chance of Mr. George coming up which he did so I had his company coming home. He looks most wonderfully better for a change, it was his first visit to Victoria, he came in for a ball.
Father askes about the potatoes we brought out, they didn’t do well, but they may have been the fault of the land, in fact I think it certainly was as nothing did well in the patch —– & we are not going to try it again. We only got about half a pack of potatoes which Cecil is keeping for seed & is going to put in another place this year.
Cecil has been hauling wood from Mr. Gibson’s to Mrs. Smith’s, & in return Mr. Gibson is going to cut five cords of wood for us in stove logs. Cecil killed a young pig yesterday. We are going to salt the ___ & use the rest as fresh pork. He is quite a little pig.
I have been painting the kitchen with some pain I had over from last year, it is very nearly finished & it looks very nice. If you have one or two coloured xmas number pictures I should be very glad to have them to put up. I have put up the three Pears annual ones you sent at xmas.
There is very high wind to-day & it is colder, there was a hard frost last night. I heard from Aunt Bree & Aunt Grace to-day. It is getting late so I will stop. I believe Cecil is going to write to-morrow.
Love to everyone.
Your affectionate daughter.
May Wright
May’s Letter to Mother- March 12, 1897
In May’s letter to her mother, she updates her on what has been going on in their town. She also requests her mother send some new music be sent from home in England to Agassiz. The daily struggles of running a farm are relayed home to keep her mother updated on what life in Canada is like.
Hazeley Ranch
Agassiz, B.C.
March 12, 1897My dearest Mother,
We have had a cold snap again, but it is going to be a short one I think. it froze up two days ago quite suddenly & was very cold all yesterday with snow & wind, but to-day it is warmer & looks like rain. A new store has started up at the station, I haven’t been yet, but I believe it is very cheap at present.
Mrs. MacPherson has got a niece staying with her, May Goodfellow, she is 17 & comes from Seattle, Harold has been to call on her but I have been too busy.
Mr. George has given up his place he has not settled yet what he is going to do, he would have started a store with the Dr. but the Dr. would not put up half the money, he thinks of going in with a man in Vancouver now, but he doesn’t like to settle anything in a hurry, which is very wise.
Would you send two copies of “Songs of Nature” there are three copies on the drawing room with the music; & also two copies of “Little songs for little voices” (I think that is what they are called) Mrs. Gatty; & pay for them out of my allowance. I think they are 1/11 each in paper covers.
Things are much as usual, two or three cows have got calves & the pigs have done very well, we killed one, it was very good, I have salted the hams, they only weighed 5 lbs. each, I made three pork pies and three little b—- they had to kill the pig because it took to sucking the cows.
I haven’t heard anything of Miss. Hadfield since I left home, do you remember she was to have met us in Liverpool & never turned up, or wrote. You seem to be having a bad time with cooks, it is funny that more girls won’t learn to cook. I have some mending to do to-night so I must stop.
Ever so much love.
Your affectionate daughter,
May Wright.
May’s Letter to Mother- March 20th, 1897
In May’s letter home, she shares that the snow has returned to Agassiz and contemplates going up to Yale for Easter with Reverend Croucher. Meanwhile Harold sets out to Harrison Hot Springs to pay a visit to it’s newest visitor, Miss. Goodfellow.
Hazeley
Agassiz, B.C.
March 20, 1897My dearest Mother,
We have had a very snowy week, I don’t think that we have had twenty-four hours without a snow-storm for nearly a fortnight, but it is thawing all the time, the roads will be pretty bad soon. I walked up to the Agassiz on Thursday, I managed it in the f—.
The photographs of us in fancy dress arrived two days ago, thank you for them. Cecil has heard from the Bank that the money has arrived, I don’t think he has written to Father.A new store has started at the station, at present it is very cheap but I suppose it will get as bad as others in time.
Mr. Croucher wants me to go to Yale for Easter but I don’t think I shall. Harold is going up to the Springs to see Miss. Goodfellow to-morrow, I have just seen her at church but that is all as I didn’t go to lunch with the Agassiz’s as Mr. Croucher asked me lunch at the Hotel with him & Mrs. Jemmett. I hear that Mr. Lane is coming out again very soon to represent some mining company. Mr. Sick is a bar-tender in Nanaimo now; Ms. Sick is in England acting at the Lyceum.
We haven’t done anything particular lately, the cattle are fairly well but this snow is bad for them, we have several calves.
I heard from Jack a few days ago, he seems to like his life. There really is — — the mail have been delayed lately, & we have not got the letters on the usual days.
Much love to everybody,
Your affectionate daughter,
May Wright
I hope the ring arrived all right that I sent to Dorothy.
People Mentioned in the Wright Family Letters
Below are photographs of individuals referenced in the Wright family’s letters from in February and March 1897. These images, preserved in the archives of the Agassiz-Harrison Museum help connect names on the page to real people who lived, worked, and socialized in early Agassiz. Together, they represent the close-knit community that shaped everyday settler life in the Fraser Valley at the end of the nineteenth century.
Standing Left to Right
Miss. Nellie – Eleanor Maud Agassiz
Lewis Arthur Agassiz
Miss Minnie – Mary Louisa Agassiz
Wing
John Ruyter Brown (Luella’s husband)
Seated Left to Right
Luella Beatrice Agassiz Brown
Baby Jackie
Mrs. Agassiz – Mary Caroline Sham Agassiz
Miss. Connie – Constance Theresa Agassiz
Jane “Jinny” Caroline Vaudine Agassiz married Ewen Cluny MacPherson and in the letters is also known as “Mrs. MacPherson”
Jinny and Ewan MacPherson together in 1905 and Jinny as a young woman in the second photograph
Mr. Albert St. George Hamersley
Reverend Charles Croucher
Why Letters Like These Matter to British Columbia History
The Hazeley Letters offer a rare and unusually detailed record of everyday settler life in Agassiz during the late nineteenth century. Unlike official records, newspapers, or promotional literature, these private family letters capture how ordinary people experienced migration, work, weather, community, and celebration in real time.
Importantly, the Wrights were not prominent figures. They were neither politicians nor major landowners. Their significance lies precisely in their ordinariness. Through descriptions of walking miles along muddy railway tracks, sewing worn clothing, hosting neighbours for tea, and speculating about mining ventures, the letters illuminate how communities functioned at a human scale in the Fraser Valley.
Preserved today at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum & Archives, the Hazeley Letters survived only narrowly. Their survival allows historians like myself to reconstruct aspects of local history that would otherwise remain invisible. By transcribing and contextualizing these letters, we gain insight not only into the Wright family’s experiences, but into the broader rhythms of settler life in British Columbia in 1897.
Related Hazeley Letter Posts
- ‘Frozen Solid’: The Wright Siblings’ First Winter in Canada, 1896
- Winter Life in Agassiz, British Columbia
- Autumn in Agassiz 1896
Editorial Note: How These Letters Are Used
The letters reproduced in this post are transcribed verbatim from original manuscripts held at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum & Archives. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation have been preserved to maintain the integrity of the original documents. Editorial introductions and historical context have been added to assist modern readers and to situate the letters within the broader social and historical landscape of nineteenth-century British Columbia.
This post forms part of an ongoing research and transcription project examining the Hazeley Letters and the Wright family’s settlement in the Fraser Valley.
Jodie Foerster is a history student at the University of the Fraser Valley and a Museum Assistant and Researcher at the Agassiz-Harrison Museum and Archives. She specializes in British Columbia's settler history and archival storytelling. Learn more on the About page
