Harrison Hill (622m) is a small mountain located at the confluence of the Harrison and

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

s in the Lower Mainland region of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

, Canada. Harrison Knob (~225m) is a prominent shoulder to the east of the main peak of Harrison Hill. Harrison Hill and Harrison Knob are on the north side of the Fraser opposite

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( )( hur, Ts'elxwéyeqw) is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains and home to recreational areas such as Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Parks. There are numerous outdoor ...

, Harrison Knob overlooks the confluence directly, Harrison Hill itself separates the Fraser downstream from that confluence and overlooks on its north Harrison Bay, a large, shallow lake-like sidewater of the Harrison River, while at its western foot is the community of Lake Errock. At its eastern foot, just below Harrison Knob, had been the formerly large sawmill town of Harrison Mills, which spanned both sides of the Harrison and was served by the mainline of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

, which runs along the north side of the mountain's base. The Indian Reserves of the Scowlitz First Nation are at the western end of Harrison Bay and at its outlet at its eastern end, while the reserve of the

Chehalis First Nation The Sts'ailes Nation formerly known as Chehalis First Nation ( hur, Sts'a'í:les) is the band government of the Sts'Ailes people, whose territories lie between Deroche and Agassiz, British Columbia. The Sts'Alies are a Halkomelem-speaking people b ...

is along its north shore, and Kilby is on its east shore.

Archaeological site

Harrison Knob and Harrison Hill are important in regional archaeology as the site of a number of surviving

Coast Salish The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the C ...

mound or "pyramid" cemeteries. Built of earth and stone and called the Scowlitz Mounds, also the Fraser Valley Pyramids, the structures date from 1000 to 1500 BP. In the

Halkomelem Halkomelem (; in the Upriver dialect, in the Island dialect, and in the Downriver dialect) is a language of various First Nations peoples of the British Columbia Coast. It is spoken in what is now British Columbia, ranging from southeastern ...

language, Harrison Knob is called Qithyll. There are 198 mounds in 15 distinct clusters over an area comprising 10 km².Final draft of SAA Mound Poster
Nicole Oakes, Simon Fraser University/J. Brown & Oakes Archaeology, Michael Blake, University of British Columbia,

Dana Lepofsky Dana Sue Lepofsky (born 1958) is a Canadian archaeologist and ethnobiologist. She is a professor at Simon Fraser University, a former president of the Society of Ethnobiology, and received the Smith-Wintemberg Award in 2018. Her research focuses ...

, Simon Fraser University

References

Archaeological sites in British Columbia Sto:lo First Nations history Mountains of the Lower Mainland {{FirstNations-stub